2107097 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application for review of a decision to refuse a protection visa made by an applicant from China. The applicant sought review of the refusal decision, but their application was lodged with the Tribunal after the statutory time limit had expired. The Tribunal had invited the applicant to comment on the timeliness of their application, but no response was received.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it had jurisdiction to consider the applicant's review application, given that it was lodged outside the prescribed 28-day period following notification of the refusal decision. This required the Tribunal to determine if the application had been made in accordance with the relevant legislative provisions governing the time for lodging applications for review.

The Tribunal found that the application for review was received on 28 May 2021, which was more than 28 days after the applicant was notified of the refusal decision. As the application was not made within the time stipulated by the legislation, the Tribunal concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter. The Tribunal did not have jurisdiction in this matter.