From 18 May 2026, important changes to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) have come into effect. These changes make it much easier for the Tribunal to decide certain visa reviews on the papers, that is, without holding an oral hearing.

The ART is now required to decide most Student Visa (Subclass 500) refusals on the papers instead of holding an oral hearing. This is the first time the mandatory “on the papers” rule has been applied to any temporary visa type.

What Are the New Rules?

The new law allows the ART to decide a case on the papers if:

• The issues can be adequately determined without a hearing
• It is reasonable in the circumstances to make a decision without a hearing
• The parties have been given a reasonable opportunity to provide written submissions

Important Point for Temporary Visa Holders

While the new rules apply to temporary visas, so far only one visa type has been designated: Student Visa (Subclass 500) refusals.

This is the first temporary visa type captured under the new system. Other temporary visas (such as 482 TSS/SID visas, 485 Graduate visas, visitor visas, etc) have not yet been prescribed.

This means the ART can still choose to hold a hearing for those cases, although they now have greater flexibility to decide them on the papers where appropriate.

Why Start with Student Visas?

Student visa refusals make up a large part of the ART backlog. Many of these cases are decided based on documents (financials, Genuine Student criterion, academic records, etc), so the government believes they can be fairly assessed without the need for an oral hearing.

What’s Next?

Migration experts expect the government to expand the list progressively through the Migration Regulations 1994. While unconfirmed, the strongest contenders for the next round are:

1. Visitor Visas (Subclass 600) – Very high volume of refusals and mostly document-based.
2. Temporary Graduate Visa (Subclass 485) – High numbers and many refusals relate to eligibility criteria that can be assessed on paper.
3. Other short-term temporary visas (eg Subclass 408 Temporary Activity, Subclass 403 Temporary Work, or training visas).