1807333 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of China, 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 appeal.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant's application for review was lodged within the time prescribed by the relevant legislation. Specifically, the Tribunal had to consider if the failure to lodge the application by the statutory deadline deprived it of jurisdiction to proceed with the review.

The Tribunal found that the application for review was received on 19 March 2018, which was four days after the statutory deadline for lodging such an application. Applying the relevant legislative provisions, the Tribunal concluded that the application for review was not made in accordance with the statutory requirements. Consequently, the Tribunal determined that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits of the applicant's case.

The Tribunal made no order in relation to the merits of the protection visa application, as it had no jurisdiction to do so.