1830555 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of China, sought a protection visa. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) dismissed the applicant's application after the applicant failed to attend a scheduled hearing. The applicant subsequently failed to apply for reinstatement of the application within the prescribed 14-day period. The decision under review was the AAT's dismissal of the protection visa application.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant had complied with the procedural requirements for seeking a review of the dismissal of their protection visa application, specifically concerning the time limit for applying for reinstatement after failing to attend a hearing.

The Tribunal reasoned that under the relevant legislative provisions, a failure to apply for reinstatement within the 14-day period mandated that the Tribunal must confirm the decision to dismiss the application. As the applicant did not meet this time requirement, the Tribunal was obliged to affirm the decision under review. Consequently, the Tribunal confirmed its earlier decision to dismiss the applicant's protection visa application.