The timeline of Safavi’s arrival and subsequent status change has been a primary focal point of the outcry. Having arrived in Australia on a student visa in February 2024, she was granted a Skilled Independent (subclass 189) visa by October of the same year. To many observers, this eight-month leap to permanent residency feels like an extraordinary fast-track, especially when compared to the years of waiting and rigorous vetting faced by many other skilled migrants and refugees. The speed of the approval has led to intense scrutiny of whether her high-level connections influenced the process or if there were significant lapses in the Department of Home Affairs’ background checks.
