1921049 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa by applicants from China. The central dispute concerned the timeliness of the applicants' application for review of a decision.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicants' application for review was lodged within the time prescribed by the relevant legislation, and consequently, whether the Tribunal had jurisdiction to hear the matter.

The Tribunal found that the applicants were taken to have been notified of the decision on 24 June 2019, pursuant to section 494C of the Act. This established 21 July 2019 as the end of the prescribed period for lodging an application for review. Applying section 36(2) of the *Acts Interpretation Act 1901*, which extends the deadline when the last day falls on a Sunday, the applicants had until 22 July 2019 to lodge their application. As the application was received on 31 July 2019, it was lodged out of time.

Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the application for review was not made in accordance with the relevant legislation, and therefore, the Tribunal lacked jurisdiction to consider the matter.