1516376 (Refugee)

The applicant sought a protection visa. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) dismissed the application after the applicant failed to appear at a scheduled hearing. The applicant did not subsequently apply for the reinstatement of their application within the prescribed 14-day period.

The central legal issue before the AAT was whether the dismissal of the protection visa application should be confirmed, given the applicant's failure to appear at the hearing and their subsequent failure to seek reinstatement within the statutory timeframe.

The AAT Member, Nathan Goetz, noted that the Tribunal's records indicated no request for reinstatement had been received from the applicant. Consequently, as the applicant had not applied for reinstatement within the 14 days following the dismissal, the Tribunal was obliged to confirm the decision to dismiss the application. The Member applied the principle that where an applicant fails to seek reinstatement within the specified period, the decision to dismiss the application is taken to be affirmed.

The Tribunal confirmed the decision to dismiss the application.