1928871 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of Fiji, sought review of a decision concerning their application for a protection visa. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was asked to consider whether it had jurisdiction to hear the application for review.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the application for review had been lodged within the time prescribed by the relevant legislation. The Tribunal was required to determine if the failure to lodge the application within the statutory timeframe deprived it of jurisdiction to consider the merits of the applicant's case.

The Tribunal found that the application for review was received on 12 October 2019. As this date was outside the period permitted by the relevant legislation for lodging an application for review, the Tribunal concluded that the application had not been made in accordance with the law. Consequently, the Tribunal held that it lacked jurisdiction to proceed with the matter. The Tribunal therefore made no order in relation to the merits of the protection visa application.