2201000 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of China, sought review of a decision by the Minister to refuse to grant a protection visa. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was asked to consider whether it had jurisdiction to hear the applicant's review application, which was lodged out of time.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the application for review had been made in accordance with the relevant legislative provisions, specifically concerning the time limits for lodging such an application. The Tribunal was required to determine if the late lodgement of the application deprived it of jurisdiction to proceed with the review.

The Tribunal found that the application for review was not received by the Tribunal until 26 January 2022. As this date fell outside the prescribed time limit for lodging an application for review, the Tribunal concluded that the application had not been made in accordance with the relevant legislation. Consequently, the Tribunal held that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits of the applicant's case.

The Tribunal ordered that it does not have jurisdiction in this matter.