1731918 (Refugee)

The applicant sought review of a decision by the Minister to refuse to grant a protection visa. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was asked to determine whether it had jurisdiction to hear the applicant's review application, which had been lodged after the prescribed time limit.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant's application for review was made in accordance with the relevant legislative provisions, specifically concerning the timeframes for lodging such applications. The Tribunal was required to ascertain if the delay in lodging the application deprived it of jurisdiction to consider the merits of the case.

The Tribunal found that the application for review was not received by the Tribunal until a date in December 2017, which was after the statutory deadline. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the application had not been made in accordance with the relevant legislation. As a result, the Tribunal determined that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter. The Tribunal made no orders as it had no jurisdiction.