Incorrect information
A notice about the non-compliance, a decision that there was non-compliance, and only then the power to cancel.
Visa cancellation · NOICC · s.109 · s.116 · s.501
Received a visa cancellation notice?
A letter saying your visa may be cancelled is not a decision that it has been cancelled. Work out which document you have, which power is being used, and the date you have to answer by.
On this page
- Has your visa been cancelled, or is the Department considering it?
- Start with the deadline
- What should a cancellation response deal with?
- Evidence
- Four cancellation powers
- The power decides the procedure
- Section 109 – incorrect information or a bogus document
- Section 116 – the general power
- Section 128 – cancellation while you are outside Australia
- Section 501 – character
- What happens if the visa is cancelled
- Can I apply for another visa after a cancellation?
- Can the Administrative Review Tribunal review a cancellation?
- Can my family’s visas be affected?
- Will a cancellation stop me returning to Australia?
- If you have received a notice
- The cancellation powers
- Conditions, work and study
- Character cancellation
- After a cancellation
- Review and representation
General information about how the cancellation powers work. It is not advice. Which power the Department is using changes the procedure, the time you have to answer and whether the decision can be reviewed, so the notice itself has to be read first.
If you contact us about a cancellation, send the complete notice or decision and the email or other communication by which it was sent. How and when it was given to you can decide the deadline. No Worries Migration is an Australian migration practice, not a law firm, and nothing on this website is legal advice.
Has your visa been cancelled, or is the Department considering it?
These are different stages, and they call for different work.
A notice of intention to consider cancellation, often shortened to NOICC, means no decision has been made. The notice has to tell you that grounds appear to exist, give you particulars of those grounds and of the information behind them, and invite you to show within a stated time either that the grounds do not exist or that there is a reason not to cancel. Answering that invitation is the opportunity.
A section 107 notice is the equivalent step where the issue is incorrect information or a bogus document. It has its own procedure and its own timing, and it comes before any decision to cancel under section 109.
A cancellation decision means the visa is already cancelled. The questions change to what your status is now, whether the decision can be reviewed, who may apply and by when.
A mandatory character cancellation under section 501(3A) works differently again. There is no notice beforehand and no discretion at that stage. What follows is a written invitation to ask for the cancellation to be revoked, and the prescribed period for that is 28 days.
A letter headed “cancellation” is not interchangeable with another one you have read about online. The section named in it decides what happens next.
Migration Act 1958 s.107, s.119, s.501(3A), s.501CA · reg 2.52
Start with the deadline.
Cancellation runs on short periods, and they are not all the same period.
Where the Department invites you to comment before deciding, the prescribed time to respond is 5 working days if you are in Australia. If you are outside Australia it is either 5 working days or 28 days, depending on where the cancellation is being considered. The Minister may extend that time, and the prescribed extension is a further 5 working days.
Where a visa was cancelled without notice while you were outside Australia, the time to ask for the cancellation to be reconsidered is 28 days if you are still outside Australia. If you are in Australia when you are given that notice and you want it reconsidered while you stay here, the prescribed period is 5 minutes.
To ask for a mandatory character cancellation to be revoked, the period is 28 days after you are given the notice and the particulars of the relevant information.
Work the date out from the documents, not from an article. Check the provision named in the notice, the date on it, how and when it was given to you, the period the notice states, and whether the notification rules change the day you are taken to have received it.
If the visa has already been cancelled and the decision can be reviewed, a separate statutory deadline runs to the Administrative Review Tribunal, and that one is set out in our refusals and review guide.
s.121(2), s.121(4), s.129, s.494B–s.494D · reg 2.44, reg 2.46, reg 2.52
What should a cancellation response deal with?
Start with the allegation actually made in the notice. Depending on the power being used, there are two separate questions.
Does the cancellation ground exist?
Answering this may mean correcting a factual assumption, explaining what the condition required, dealing with information the Department is relying on, or showing that the non-compliance did not happen.
If it does exist, why should the visa not be cancelled?
In some matters the Department may be satisfied that a ground exists, so the response also needs to explain why the visa should not be cancelled in the person’s circumstances. Where the decision-maker has a discretion, that is the question the response has to answer.
What is relevant depends on the power and on the case. It may include how the issue arose and whether it was deliberate or inadvertent, the seriousness of the conduct, your immigration history and your compliance before and after the event, family circumstances and the effect on any children, health, employment or study, your ties to Australia, the hardship cancellation would cause, and what you have done to put the problem right.
A long personal statement on its own leaves the decision-maker to find the important points. Answer the grounds raised in the notice, and tie each document to the issue it answers.
Evidence.
Important factual claims should be supported with documents wherever possible. A statement that you were unwell is worth less than the medical record that shows it.
What helps depends on the allegation. It may include employment records, payslips, rosters and contracts; enrolment, attendance and course progress records; medical reports; police and court documents; evidence of family relationships and of children; financial records; correspondence with an employer, an education provider or the Department; earlier visa documents; evidence that incorrect information has been corrected; statements from people who can speak to the facts; and a chronology setting out what happened and when.
Not every matter needs every kind of document. Relevance decides it, not volume.
Received a notice from Home Affairs?
Send us the complete notice and the email or other communication by which it was sent. We can check the cancellation provision, the response deadline and what the Department is asking you to address.
Four cancellation powers.
s.109
s.116
The general power
Conditions breached, a fact that no longer exists, risk to the community, identity, student grounds and prescribed grounds.
s.128
While you are overseas
Cancellation without notice beforehand, then a notice inviting you to show why it should not have happened.
s.501
Character
Discretionary refusal and cancellation, and mandatory cancellation where a sentence is being served. Revocation is the way back.
The power decides the procedure.
Section 109 – incorrect information or a bogus document
Section 109 applies where the Department considers that a visa holder did not comply with the obligations about information and documents. It runs through separate steps: a notice under section 107 setting out the particulars of the suspected non-compliance, a decision under section 108 that there was non-compliance, and only then the power to cancel.
The Regulations set out what has to be considered before cancelling: the correct information, the content of the genuine document, whether the grant was based on the incorrect information or bogus document, the circumstances in which the non-compliance occurred, your present circumstances, your subsequent behaviour, any other instances of non-compliance, the time that has passed, breaches of the law since and their seriousness, and any contribution you have made to the community.
Section 116 – the general power
Section 116 holds several grounds. They include a fact the grant was based on no longer existing or never having existed, the holder not complying with a condition of the visa, another person not complying with a condition they were required to meet, the holder’s presence being or possibly being a risk to the health, safety or good order of the community or to an individual, the visa not having been grantable, a student who is not or is likely not to be a genuine student, and grounds prescribed in the Regulations. Three further powers sit beside it: where the Minister is not satisfied as to identity, where incorrect information was given outside a visa application, and where a benefit was asked for or given in return for a sponsorship-related event.
Where the ordinary notice procedure applies, section 119 requires you to be told that grounds appear to exist and invited to show that they do not, or that there is a reason not to cancel. Section 120 requires the particulars of the relevant information to be put to you first.
The section carries two limits. The Minister must cancel, not merely may, where prescribed circumstances exist. And a permanent visa cannot be cancelled under section 116(1) if the holder is in the migration zone and was immigration cleared on last entering Australia.
s.116, s.117(2), s.119–s.121 · reg 2.43
Section 128 – cancellation while you are outside Australia
A visa can be cancelled under section 128 while the holder is outside Australia, without notice beforehand, where a section 116 ground exists. You are notified afterwards under section 129, and that notice invites you to show within the prescribed period that the ground did not exist or that the visa should not have been cancelled.
People often find out at an airport. If you are overseas and discover the visa is gone, check the provision and the reconsideration process under the Act before assuming a fresh application is the only route.
Section 501 – character
Character is a separate regime. A visa can be refused or cancelled where the person does not satisfy the character test, and some of those decisions are discretionary. Section 501(3A) requires mandatory cancellation where the person does not pass the character test because of a substantial criminal record or a sexually based offence involving a child, and is serving a full-time sentence of imprisonment in a custodial institution.
After a mandatory cancellation the person must be given written notice and invited to make representations seeking revocation under section 501CA, within 28 days of being given the notice and the particulars. The decision can be revoked if the Minister is satisfied the person passes the character test, or that there is another reason to revoke it.
Direction no. 110, given under section 499 and commenced on 21 June 2024, binds decision-makers considering section 501 and section 501CA matters. Its primary considerations are protection of the Australian community from criminal or other serious conduct, whether the conduct constituted family violence, the strength, nature and duration of ties to Australia, the best interests of minor children in Australia, and the expectations of the Australian community.
s.499, s.501, s.501CA · reg 2.52 · Direction no. 110 (Home Affairs)
What happens if the visa is cancelled.
It depends on the visa, the provision used, where you are, whether another visa is in effect and whether review rights exist. What can follow includes losing the visa that allowed you to stay; becoming an unlawful non-citizen if no other visa is in effect; detention and removal in some circumstances; a restriction on which visa applications you can make while you are here; an exclusion period affecting a later application; the cancellation of visas held by family members; and a short deadline to seek review if the decision is reviewable.
Lodging another visa application does not necessarily fix it. In some cases the cancellation itself decides which applications can validly be made. Where lawful status is the immediate problem, our bridging and status resolution work is the part of the practice that deals with it.
Can I apply for another visa after a cancellation?
Sometimes. The answer turns on your circumstances.
Section 48 restricts a person who is in the migration zone, does not hold a substantive visa, and since last entering Australia has been refused a visa or has held a visa cancelled under section 109, 116, 133A, 133C, 134, 137J or 137Q. That person may apply only for a class of visa prescribed for the purposes of the section.
Two things the bar does not catch: a refusal of a bridging visa, and a refusal under section 501, 501A or 501B. Note also which cancellation provisions are on that list and which are not.
Being able to name a prescribed class is not the same as being able to get it. Each visa has its own validity and eligibility requirements, and other bars can apply. Check the cancellation provision, your current status and any section 48 consequence before lodging anything.
Can the Administrative Review Tribunal review a cancellation?
Some cancellation decisions can be reviewed and some cannot. The decision letter normally states whether review rights exist, who is entitled to apply and the time limit. Decisions made personally by the Minister are generally outside merits review.
Where a review right exists for a migration decision, the period is set by the Act and the Tribunal states that it has no power to extend it. Character decisions run under separate rules, and some reviews of section 501 and section 501CA decisions involving a person in Australia are expedited with much shorter timeframes. We set the periods and who holds the review right out in our refusals and review guide.
A mandatory cancellation under section 501(3A) is not itself reviewed by the Tribunal in the same way. The statutory revocation process comes first, and a later decision not to revoke may be reviewable depending on the circumstances.
Representing a person at the Tribunal in a migration matter is work a registered migration agent is authorised to do.
Can my family’s visas be affected?
Yes, and it is not left to discretion. Where a visa is cancelled under section 109, 116, 128, 133A, 133C or 137J, a visa held by another person because of being a member of that person’s family unit is also cancelled. A visa held by someone else only because the primary holder held a visa may be cancelled without notice to them. A visa granted to a child born in Australia because a parent held the cancelled visa goes as well.
Two things follow. A partner or child who holds a visa in their own right on other grounds is not caught by this. And if the primary cancellation is revoked, the consequential cancellation is revoked with it.
So a cancellation is never only about the primary holder. Everyone who holds a visa through you needs to be dealt with at the same time.
Will a cancellation stop me returning to Australia?
It can affect future travel and future applications. Home Affairs describes a re-entry ban, also called an exclusion period, as meaning a person may not be granted further visas to return, and says an exclusion period may last up to three years although some people can be permanently excluded. It also says that where it cancels a visa it will tell the person in writing what exclusion period has been applied.
Beyond that, a cancellation can engage public interest criteria on later applications, and many visas ask whether previous visa conditions were complied with. Check the decision for an exclusion period, and expect a later application to have to deal with the history.
If you have received a notice
Is a NOICC the same as a visa cancellation?
No. A notice of intention to consider cancellation means the Department is considering whether to cancel and is giving you an opportunity to respond under the relevant procedure. A cancellation decision means the visa has already been cancelled.
What should I do first if I receive a notice?
Read the whole notice, identify the provision it names and check the response date. Keep the email or other communication by which it was sent, because how and when it was given to you can decide the deadline. Then collect the documents that answer what has been alleged.
How long do I have to respond?
There is no single period that safely covers every kind of cancellation notice. For an invitation to comment before a decision, the Regulations prescribe 5 working days if you are in Australia, and 5 working days or 28 days if you are outside Australia depending on where the cancellation is being considered. Other regimes have their own periods.
Use the date in your notice, and have the notification date checked rather than relying on a general answer online.
Can I ask for more time to respond?
Where the period is a prescribed one, the Act allows the Minister to extend it by a prescribed further period, and the Regulations prescribe 5 working days. That is a power, not an entitlement, so do not plan on it. Ask immediately if you need it and keep preparing the response in the meantime.
What if I do not respond?
The decision can be made without you. If the time passes, or you tell the Department you do not wish to respond, the Minister may decide about cancellation without taking any further action about the information.
Should I respond if I think the Department has it plainly wrong?
Yes. If you have been invited to respond, the invitation is the opportunity to correct it. Identify the factual or legal misunderstanding, say what the correct position is, and put the documents that show it in within the time allowed.
The notice does not say what information they are relying on.
It is meant to. Section 120 requires the decision-maker to give you particulars of the relevant information: information that would be the reason or part of the reason for cancelling, that is specifically about you or another person rather than a class of people, and that you did not give.
If the notice is thin on that, it is worth raising in the response and worth advice.
Should I send every document I have?
No. A focused response is more useful than an unsorted bundle. Send the documents that prove the facts you rely on, and say what each important document is there to show.
The cancellation powers
Is there one cancellation power or several?
Several, and which one is being used changes the procedure.
Section 109 deals with incorrect information and runs through its own steps: a notice under section 107, a decision under section 108 that there was non-compliance, and then the power to cancel. Section 116 is the general power. Section 128 allows cancellation without notice while you are outside Australia. Section 501 deals with character and is a separate regime.
What are the section 116 grounds?
The main ones are that a fact the grant was based on no longer exists or never existed, that the holder has not complied with a condition of the visa, that another person required to comply with a condition has not, that the holder’s presence is or may be a risk to the health, safety or good order of the community or to an individual, that the visa should not have been granted, and that a prescribed ground applies. There is a ground specific to student visas, covering a holder who is not or is likely not to be a genuine student, or who has engaged in conduct not contemplated by the visa.
Three further powers sit alongside: where the Minister is not satisfied as to identity, where incorrect information was given outside a visa application, and where a benefit was asked for or given in return for a sponsorship-related event.
Can they be made to cancel, rather than choosing to?
Yes. Both section 109 and section 116 say that where prescribed circumstances exist the Minister must cancel rather than may. Those circumstances are in the Regulations, not the Act.
Where a visa is cancelled on one of those mandatory section 116 grounds, the Regulations also prevent the cancellation being revoked.
Can the Department cancel my visa without warning?
In some regimes prior notice is required and in others it is not. Section 128 allows cancellation without notice while the holder is outside Australia, and mandatory character cancellation under section 501(3A) happens without a prior notice as well. Whether you should have been given a notice first depends on the power being used.
Can my visa be cancelled while I am outside Australia?
Yes, and without notice first. Section 128 allows it where a section 116 ground exists and you are outside Australia. You are notified afterwards under section 129 and invited to show within the prescribed period that the ground did not exist or that the visa should not have been cancelled. People often find out when they try to board a flight, so the notice can reach them late.
Can a permanent visa be cancelled?
Yes, under some provisions. But the general power has a limit that is often missed: a permanent visa cannot be cancelled under section 116(1) if the holder is in the migration zone and was immigration cleared on last entering Australia. Where the permanent visa holder is, and how they last entered, can decide whether the power is available at all.
Conditions, work and study
Can the Department cancel my visa for breaching a visa condition?
Breach of a condition is a ground under section 116. Whether cancellation follows depends on the condition, the provisions that apply and the circumstances, including anything the Regulations require the decision-maker to have regard to.
Can my visa be cancelled for breaching work restrictions if I was being exploited?
There is protection here, and it is in the Regulations rather than in policy.
Where a temporary visa holder has not complied with a work-related condition, the Minister must have regard to a written certificate from a certifying entity about a workplace exploitation matter, to whether the breach is connected with that matter, and to whether the holder has committed in writing to resolve it and to comply in future.
A further regulation goes further again: where a temporary visa is subject to a condition restricting the work that may be done, and all the prescribed circumstances exist, the Minister is not to cancel the visa for that breach. It does not cover a no-work condition, it does not apply to every breach or every cancellation ground, and it falls away if a previous written commitment was not kept.
Home Affairs also runs a reporting-protections scheme and a Workplace Justice visa for people who need to stay to resolve a workplace matter. If the alleged breach is connected with exploitation, keep the evidence of it and get advice before responding.
s.116(1A), s.116(2) · reg 2.43A, reg 2.43B · Home Affairs – workers rights and visa reporting protections
Can my employer cancel my visa?
No. Home Affairs puts it plainly: employers cannot cancel your visa, even if you have breached your visa conditions, and only the Department, including the Australian Border Force, can grant, refuse or cancel visas.
An employer can give information to the Department, or take action about a sponsorship. That is a different thing from cancelling a visa.
Home Affairs – workers rights and visa reporting protections
Can my visa be cancelled because I stopped working for my sponsor?
A change in sponsored employment can have consequences, but what they are depends on the subclass, the conditions attached, the sponsorship position and the power being considered. Do not assume the visa was cancelled on the day the job ended. Check the condition, then check whether anything has been done about it.
Can a student visa be cancelled?
Yes. Student visas are exposed to the general grounds and to a student-specific one: a holder who is not, or is likely not to be, a genuine student, or who has engaged in conduct not contemplated by the visa. Enrolment, attendance, course progress and visa conditions can all be in issue. The ground the Department actually states is the one the response has to answer.
Can the Department cancel my visa for giving incorrect information?
Potentially. Sections 101 to 109 set out the obligations about information and documents and the procedure that can follow non-compliance. Whether cancellation happens depends on that procedure and on the prescribed circumstances being weighed.
What if the wrong information was an honest mistake?
The circumstances in which it was given are one of the prescribed matters, so it is relevant. It does not end the matter by itself. Explain how the error happened, give the correct information, show what was done to correct it, and deal with the other prescribed matters as well, including your present circumstances, the time that has passed and your contribution to the community.
Character cancellation
What is mandatory cancellation under section 501?
The Minister must cancel where two things are both true: the person does not pass the character test because of a substantial criminal record or a sexually based offence involving a child, and the person is serving a sentence of imprisonment on a full-time basis in a custodial institution.
There is no discretion at that stage. It comes later, at revocation.
What counts as a substantial criminal record?
It is defined. It includes a sentence of imprisonment for 12 months or more, and two or more sentences where the total is 12 months or more. It also covers a sentence of death or life imprisonment, and certain findings where a person was acquitted on grounds of unsoundness of mind or found unfit to plead. The length of the sentence is what counts, not the time served.
What happens after a mandatory cancellation?
Revocation. The person must be given written notice and the particulars of the relevant information, and invited to make representations about revoking the decision. The representations must be made within 28 days of that notice.
The decision can be revoked if the Minister is satisfied the person passes the character test, or that there is another reason why it should be revoked. A revocation request may need to address both.
Character cancellation can have immediate and long-term consequences for immigration status and future visa options, so the applicable timeframe should be checked straight away. If the matter reaches a stage where court proceedings are in contemplation, we will tell you and refer you to a lawyer.
What is Direction no. 110?
A direction given under section 499 of the Act, commenced on 21 June 2024, which revoked Direction no. 99. It binds decision-makers considering visa refusal and cancellation under section 501 and revocation under section 501CA.
Its primary considerations are protection of the Australian community from criminal or other serious conduct; whether the conduct engaged in constituted family violence; the strength, nature and duration of ties to Australia; the best interests of minor children in Australia; and the expectations of the Australian community. The direction states that protection of the Australian community is generally to be given greater weight than the other primary considerations.
After a cancellation
Will I become unlawful straight away?
Possibly, if no other visa is in effect. In other cases another visa or a bridging visa affects your status. This should be checked immediately after a cancellation rather than assumed, because what you can lawfully do next depends on it.
Can I work after my visa is cancelled?
Your work rights come from the visa that is in effect after the cancellation and the conditions on that visa. If the cancelled visa was your only one, do not assume the previous work rights continue.
What happens to my bridging visa if another visa is cancelled?
Do not assume a bridging visa will hold your status. The answer depends on which visas you hold, the event that brought the bridging visa into effect or ended it, and the cancellation itself. Have the grant and cancellation documents read together and your current status confirmed.
Can I apply for another visa after a cancellation?
Does section 48 apply after every cancellation?
No. It is technical. It depends on the person being in the migration zone without a substantive visa, and on the cancellation having been made under one of the provisions the section lists. Not every cancellation carries the same section 48 consequence.
Can I apply for a partner visa after my visa is cancelled?
Possibly. Partner classes are among those prescribed for section 48 purposes, which is why they come up. That does not mean every person with a cancelled visa can validly lodge or be granted an onshore partner visa. Schedule 3, your visa status and location, earlier refusals or cancellations and the ordinary criteria all still apply. Our partner visa guide sets out how those pathways work.
What happens to my family if my visa is cancelled?
Where the cancellation is under section 109, 116, 128, 133A, 133C or 137J, a visa held by another person because of being a member of your family unit is also cancelled. A visa held by someone else only because you held a visa may be cancelled without notice to them, and a visa granted to a child born in Australia because you held the cancelled visa goes too. If your cancellation is revoked, theirs is revoked with it.
Their position needs to be dealt with at the same time as yours.
Does a cancellation create a three-year ban?
Not automatically, and not always three years. Home Affairs states that a re-entry ban may last up to three years and that some people can be permanently excluded, and that where it cancels a visa it will tell the person in writing what exclusion period has been applied. Read the decision for that.
Will a cancellation affect future visa applications?
It can. Later applications ask about previous cancellations and about compliance with the conditions of previous visas, and a cancellation can engage section 48, exclusion periods, special return criteria or other criteria depending on the circumstances.
Can I just ask for my own visa to be cancelled?
Not without checking the consequences first. A cancellation can affect lawful status, any bridging visa, work rights, travel and future applications. Having applied for another visa does not make a voluntary cancellation safe.
Review and representation
Can I ask the Tribunal to review a cancellation?
Some cancellation decisions can be reviewed by the Administrative Review Tribunal and some cannot. The decision letter normally states whether merits review is available, who may apply and the deadline. Decisions made personally by the Minister are generally not reviewable by the Tribunal.
Where a section 109 cancellation carries a review right, the notice has to state that the decision can be reviewed, the time for applying, and who can apply and where. Our refusals and review guide deals with the periods and with who holds the review right.
How long do I have to apply to the Tribunal?
Use the period stated in the decision letter. Migration review deadlines are statutory and differ by decision type. For migration decisions the Tribunal states that it has no power to extend the time limit to apply.
Can the Tribunal give me more time if I miss the deadline?
For a migration review application the Tribunal states that it has no power to extend the statutory time limit. Character reviews run under separate rules, and an expedited review has its own short period which the Tribunal also cannot extend. This is why the notification letter and the date have to be checked immediately.
Is a mandatory character cancellation reviewed by the Tribunal?
Not in the same way. The statutory revocation process under section 501CA comes first. A decision not to revoke may then be reviewable depending on the circumstances, and a decision made by the Minister personally generally is not.
Can No Worries Migration represent me at the Tribunal?
Yes, within a registered migration agent’s authorised scope. Representing a person in a migration matter before the Administrative Review Tribunal is immigration assistance and is work a registered migration agent may lawfully do.
We do not conduct court proceedings. If a matter reaches the point where a court application is the remaining option, we will say so and refer you to an Australian legal practitioner.
Terms used on this page.
The terms that appear in cancellation notices and decisions, each linked to the provision it comes from.
- Notice of intention to consider cancellation
- The written notice that starts an ordinary section 116 cancellation, often shortened to NOICC. It has to tell you that there appear to be grounds, give particulars of those grounds and of the information behind them, and invite you to show within a specified time either that the grounds do not exist or that there is a reason not to cancel.Migration Act 1958 s.119
- Relevant information
- What the decision-maker must put to you before deciding. Information that would be the reason or part of the reason for cancelling, that is specifically about you or another person rather than about a class of people, and that you did not give yourself.s.120
- Section 107 notice
- The notice that begins the incorrect-information procedure. It sets out the particulars of the suspected non-compliance and invites a response, and it comes before any decision that there was non-compliance and before any cancellation under section 109.s.107, s.108
- Section 109
- Cancellation because information given was incorrect or a document was bogus. The Regulations list what has to be weighed, including the correct information, how the non-compliance happened, your present circumstances, the time that has passed and your contribution to the community.s.109 · reg 2.41
- Section 116
- The general power. It covers a fact the grant was based on no longer existing, breach of a visa condition, risk to health, safety or good order, a student who is not genuine, identity, and grounds prescribed in the Regulations, among others.s.116
- Mandatory cancellation
- Some grounds remove the discretion. Where prescribed circumstances exist the Minister must cancel, not merely may. Those circumstances sit in the Regulations, not in the Act, which is why reading the section alone can mislead.s.109(2), s.116(3) · reg 2.43(2)
- Response period
- The prescribed time to answer an invitation to comment: 5 working days in Australia, and 5 working days or 28 days offshore depending on where cancellation is being considered. The Minister may extend it by a further 5 working days.s.121(2), s.121(4) · reg 2.44
- Section 128
- Cancellation without notice, available only where you are outside Australia. You are told afterwards under section 129 and invited to show why the visa should not have been cancelled.s.128, s.129 · reg 2.46
- Consequential cancellation
- Where a visa is cancelled under section 109, 116, 128, 133A, 133C or 137J, a visa held by another person because of membership of the family unit is also cancelled. If the primary cancellation is revoked, the consequential one is revoked with it.s.140
- Workplace exploitation certificate
- A written certificate from a certifying entity about a workplace exploitation matter. Where a temporary visa holder has breached a work-related condition, the Minister must have regard to such a certificate, and in prescribed circumstances is not to cancel the visa at all.s.116(1A), s.116(2) · reg 2.43A, reg 2.43B
- Section 501(3A)
- Mandatory character cancellation. The Minister must cancel where the person does not pass the character test because of a substantial criminal record or a sexually based offence involving a child, and is serving a full-time sentence of imprisonment.s.501(3A)
- Substantial criminal record
- Defined, not left to impression. It includes a sentence of imprisonment of 12 months or more, and two or more sentences totalling 12 months or more.s.501(7)
- Revocation
- The route back from a mandatory character cancellation. Representations must be made within 28 days of the notice, and the decision can be revoked if the person passes the character test or there is another reason to revoke it.s.501CA · reg 2.52
- Direction no. 110
- The direction that binds decision-makers in section 501 and section 501CA matters. It commenced on 21 June 2024 and revoked Direction no. 99.s.499
- The section 48 bar
- Section 48 can restrict which visa applications may be made by a person in Australia who does not hold a substantive visa and whose visa was cancelled under one of the listed provisions. It may be an important consequence of a cancellation because it limits what can validly be lodged while the person remains here.s.48 · reg 2.12
- Exclusion period
- A re-entry ban attached to a later application. Home Affairs states it may last up to three years, that some people can be permanently excluded, and that where it cancels a visa it will say in writing what period has been applied.Schedule 4, PIC 4013 and 4014
Reviewed by Arash Barinder Singh (Arsh Dhillon). Registered Migration Agent, MARN 1467301. No Worries Migration, Southport, Queensland.
Last reviewed 23 August 2026
Where this comes from.
Read from the Federal Register of Legislation on 23 August 2026, from the Migration Act 1958 compilation then in force, and the Migration Regulations 1994. Every section and regulation number on this page is a link. Our legislation page lists the instruments we work from.
Direction no. 110 and the re-entry ban and workplace-exploitation material are the Department’s own published documents and are attributed to it where they are used. The Tribunal’s statements about time limits come from art.gov.au, read on 23 August 2026.
The circumstances in which cancellation becomes mandatory, the classes of visa the section 48 bar still allows, the prescribed response periods and the exclusion periods that follow a cancellation all sit in the Regulations and change. Those provisions are named and linked above.
Based on content from the Federal Register of Legislation at 22 August 2026. For the latest information on Australian Government legislation please go to https://www.legislation.gov.au. Federal Register material is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Still general information. Reading the provision is not the same as knowing which version applied to your application, how the Department and the Tribunal have interpreted it, or what it means for your circumstances. That is what advice is for.
Talk to a registered migration agent
Received a cancellation notice or decision?
Send the complete notice or decision and the notification email immediately so the provision and the response or review deadline can be checked.
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