We successfully assisted our client J. Liang in this case to navigate through a complex subclass 117 Orphan Relative Visa application. After submitting the initial application, the Department conducted investigations and obtained inconsistent information in relation to our client. In telephone interviews conducted by the Department, the sponsor informed the Department that the applicant’s mother passed away one week after giving birth. This was inconsistent with the documents that had already been submitted, which showed that the mother passed away almost two months after the applicant’s date of birth.
The Department requested for additional documents to confirm the authenticity of Ms Liang’s application. Among all the information requested, there was a request for the original cremation certificate of the client’s deceased father, despite the fact that the official notarised death certificate had already been provided.
We prepared a detailed submission to the Department which thoroughly responded to the request. In regards to inconsistency relating to the applicant’s date of birth, we successfully submitted that the original birth certificate was issued according to the lunar calendar system instead of the usual Gregorian calendar system. Furthermore, we contended that the cremation certificate requested by the Department were unnecessary as the notarised death certificate had already been submitted.
The Department accepted our submission with the only request being for our client to officially correct her date of birth in all Chinese government records and to obtain a new passport. The visa was successfully granted to our client shortly afterwards.