Figures verified 18 August 2026 against the Migration Act 1958, the Migration Regulations 1994 (legislation.gov.au), the Administrative Review Tribunal and the Department of Home Affairs. Complex cases run on deadlines — if you have just received a refusal, cancellation or warning letter, the clock is already running.
Visa refused or cancelled: the ART review window
For most migration decisions made while you were in Australia the review deadline is strict and non-extendable — commonly 28 days, but the period in your decision letter governs. Expedited character-related decisions carry a 9-day limit. The ART application fee for a migration review is $3,727 (a 50% reduction is available for financial hardship, and 50% is refunded if the decision is set aside or remitted). Current Tribunal times: half of migration reviews finalised within about 1 year 6 months, 95% within about 2 years 10 months. The full pathway, costs and strategy live on our visa refusals and appeals page.
The section 48 bar
Refused or cancelled onshore without a substantive visa? Section 48 of the Migration Act bars most new onshore applications — but regulation 2.12 preserves a specific list, including partner (820), protection, medical treatment (602), child (802), the 190, 491 and 494, and bridging visas. The exceptions carry their own traps (Schedule 3 for partner applicants chief among them). Full breakdown: the section 48 bar explained.
Schedule 3: applying without a substantive visa
Onshore partner applicants who no longer hold a substantive visa must satisfy Schedule 3 criteria or argue compelling reasons for waiving them. This is one of the most technical areas of partner visa law, and it is decided on the file you lodge — not on sympathy. Strategy must be settled before lodgement; our 820/801 guide covers where it bites.
Section 57 natural-justice letters
If the Department intends to use adverse information against you, it must put the particulars to you and invite comment. The response window depends on how the invitation is given: 28 days for a written invitation onshore, but only 5 days from immigration detention and 7 days for interview or telephone invitations (and for visitor and medical-treatment applicants). Short extensions are possible in limited cases. Read the letter's stated deadline, respond to every particular, and get advice fast — an unanswered s57 letter usually becomes a refusal.
Ministerial intervention (s351)
The last resort, only available after a tribunal decision: the Minister may personally substitute a more favourable decision where unique or exceptional circumstances exist. The power is non-compellable — no one can force consideration, and no timeframes bind it. New Ministerial Instructions took effect in September 2025 and tightened the referral criteria. There is no government fee. Intervention requests are a strategy of genuine last resort, and they do not extend lawful stay by themselves.
The common thread
Every pathway on this page is deadline-bound, evidence-hungry and unforgiving of the "lodge something and hope" approach. The order in which you use your options matters, because the review window expires first and takes the rest of the decision tree with it. Send us the decision letter before you act — from our Slacks Creek office we map the whole tree: review prospects, excepted applications, Schedule 3 strength, and when leaving and re-applying offshore is honestly the better move.