Section 501B — Refusal or cancellation of visa — mandatory
Text of provision
substitution of adverse decision under subsection 501(1) or (2) .................................................286 Migration Act 1958 xv
Plain English
Section 501B provides that the Minister must cancel a visa (or refuse a visa application) if the non-citizen has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more, whether served in full or as a non-parole period, or has been convicted of a sexually based crime involving a child. This is a mandatory cancellation — the Minister has no discretion to retain the visa once the threshold is met.
Practical effect
Mandatory cancellation under s 501B does not involve any weighing of personal circumstances — the sentence threshold is the trigger, and cancellation follows automatically. However, the affected person retains merits review rights before the ART, where they can argue that the cancellation decision should be set aside (for example, if the criminal conviction was obtained in procedurally unfair proceedings). The ART reviews mandatory cancellations in the Character Division. The Minister also retains the personal override power under s 501A to reinstate a cancellation that the ART has set aside.