1710891 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application for a protection visa by an applicant from China. The applicant failed to appear at the hearing of their application for review, which led to the dismissal of the application by the Tribunal. Subsequently, no application for reinstatement of the dismissed application was filed within the prescribed timeframe.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it was required to confirm the dismissal of the application for a protection visa, given the applicant's failure to appear at the hearing and their subsequent failure to seek reinstatement of the application within the stipulated 14-day period.

The Tribunal applied the relevant procedural rules which mandate the confirmation of a dismissal if an application for reinstatement is not made within the specified time. As the applicant did not make such an application, the Tribunal was bound to confirm its earlier decision to dismiss the application. Consequently, the decision under review, which was the dismissal of the protection visa application, was affirmed.

The Tribunal confirmed the decision to dismiss the application.