1717942 (Refugee)

This matter concerned an application for review of a delegate of the Minister's decision to refuse the applicant, a citizen of Taiwan, a protection visa. The applicant had applied for the visa on 20 April 2017. The delegate refused the application on 20 July 2017, and the applicant subsequently sought merits review from the Tribunal.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant had been properly invited to a hearing, and consequently, whether the Tribunal was justified in dismissing the application for review due to the applicant's non-appearance. The Tribunal was required to consider the effect of email delivery failures on the validity of the hearing invitation and the applicant's subsequent failure to apply for reinstatement.

The Tribunal reasoned that it had properly invited the applicant to a hearing in accordance with section 425 of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). This conclusion was based on the fact that the hearing invitation had been sent by email to the applicant's nominated authorised recipient and by registered post to both the applicant's residential address and the authorised recipient's postal address. The Tribunal noted that the email delivery status notifications indicating the email account was over quota and inactive did not negate the fact that the invitation was sent. As the applicant failed to appear at the scheduled hearing and did not apply for reinstatement of the review, the Tribunal was satisfied that it was required to confirm the decision to dismiss the application.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision to dismiss the application for review.