If you are granted a visa with an 8503 condition attached, you are not permitted to apply for another visa other than a Protection visa to extend your stay in Australia without first departing. The condition, known as the ‘No Further Stay’ condition, can be imposed on a range of temporary visas.

The Applicants were a family unit who had first entered Australian in mid-2010 on a Tourist visa. Attached to this visa was a ‘No Further Stay’ condition. Their youngest son was born in Australia during their stay on the tourist visa. Sadly, this child was diagnosed with a rare orthopaedic condition. In May 2016, the Applicants approached Immigration Solutions Lawyers for help applying for a medical treatment visa on the basis of the child’s medical condition. The Applicants were unable to lodge a valid visa application because of the ‘No Further Stay’ condition imposed on their initial Tourist visa.

Although difficult, it is possible to waive a ‘No Further Stay’ condition. To do so, Applicants must be able to demonstrate that compelling and compassionate circumstances have developed which were beyond their control since the grant of the visa that was subject to the condition. Such requests must be made in writing. When deciding whether to waive the condition, the departmental officer must be satisfied of three things:

1. The changed circumstances are both compassionate and compelling;
2. The applicant had no control over these circumstances; and

• These circumstances have resulted in a major change to the Applicant’s personal circumstances.

Immigration Solutions Lawyers relied on two grounds to argue that the ‘No Further Stay’ condition should be waived: firstly, that the youngest member of the family unit was suffering from a medical condition that required treatment and secondly, that departing Australia to lodge an offshore Medical Treatment visa application would cause hardship on the Applicants. Attached to a detailed submission we sent to the Department medical reports and hospital records, a letter from the child’s mother with photographs of the ill child and a fact sheet on the disease as evidence.

Satisfied of the existence of compelling and compassionate circumstances that were beyond the Applicants’ control, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection took only ten days to reach the decision to waive the ‘No Further Stay’ condition. Although not a guarantee that their Medical Treatment visa application will be successful, the Applicants are now able to lodge a valid application for consideration by the Department.

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