Application for Student Visa After Refusal of Entry

[Owsley88]

I was hoping for some advice from the gurus on this sight. Thanks in advance.

My "friend" was studying English under a student visa for 3 months. She is from Latin America. Her attendance in the first 2 months was ok, but in the last month, she had a health issue, and missed all her classes. She also failed to properly inform the school, and although she has results of an ultrasound exam which clearly demonstrate that she had a legitimate condition (appendicitis), the school refused to correct its records to show these absences as valid. As a result, her attendance record is terrible.

The school never notified her that she was at risk of losing her pass for non-attendance, and in fact, she never did... she turned in her student pass to the school at the end of the term and received a one month social visit pass. After 30 days, she went on holiday and re-entered under another tourist visa, and then 30 days later, went to Bali for 3 days, tried to return again and was stopped by ICA (U-turn), and repatriated back to Latin America. She was not photographed or fingerprinted, and the Notice of Refusal of Entry simply states that she was not eligible for a pass under current immigration policies. She didn't have any money on her, only a carry-on bag, and they initially let her through, gave her the chop, but when her sister (who she was travelling with) got stopped, she went back through to try to help, they re-assessed her, invalidated her visa and they were both throw in the dungeon and put on a flight out. This was about 40 days ago.

Now she wants to re-apply for a student visa to return to resume her English studies, with a different school. On the application for a new student visa (as opposed to a renewal) technically attendance in prior classes is not something that is listed on the application. However, the ICA will clearly have this data in their file on her.

Our plan is to submit an application for a new student pass through a new school, now that 3 months have gone by since the expiration of her other student pass. If she is rejected, the plan is to appeal, submit evidence of the medical condition and a letter undertaking to maintain the minimum 90% attendance, together with a letter of sponsorship from me, proof of sufficient financial resources, return ticket, etc.. I am a PR, and can demonstrate from my tax records that I can quite easily support her for the 4 months she wants to study here, and plan to sign an undertaking (from the back of form 14) that I will ensure she remains in compliance with her visa and pay for her maintenance and repatriation if necessary.

My question is whether this is the correct course of action and whether there is a reasonable chance of success. Also, I am wondering whether waiting a few months before submitting the application will increase the chance of success, or improve the chances that her past attendance record will not cause her application to be rejected. Also, I am curious whether my sponsoring her appeal will help her or not. Any ideas about how to improve her chances, suggestions about how to spin the appeal letters or any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much to all you guys on the boards....

[offshoreoildude]

Too many whores from South America (Columbia specifically but other countries I'm sure are involved) have resulted in this tightening up of SVP's to single women. In fact single men are having the same problem being associated with a spate of burglaries.