2010974 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of China, sought review of a decision concerning a protection visa. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was required to determine whether it had jurisdiction to hear the applicant's review application, which was lodged significantly out of time.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant's application for review had been made within the time prescribed by the relevant legislation. This required the Tribunal to ascertain the date on which the applicant was taken to have been notified of the original decision, and consequently, the date by which the review application ought to have been filed.

The Tribunal found that the applicant was deemed to have been notified of the decision on 4 June 2019. Under the applicable legislation, this meant the period for lodging an application for review expired on 1 July 2019. As the Tribunal did not receive the applicant's review application until 1 July 2020, it was not made within the prescribed timeframe. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded it lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits of the application.