2212745 (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 core of the dispute concerned the timeliness of the application for review, which was lodged with the Tribunal after the statutory deadline.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it had jurisdiction to hear the application for review. This depended on whether the application was made within the prescribed time limit of 28 days after the applicant was notified of the refusal decision. The applicant's migration agent had created the email address to which the notification was sent, and this agency had since closed.

The Tribunal found that the application for review was received on 30 August 2022, which was beyond the 28-day period stipulated by the relevant legislation. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the application had not been made in accordance with the law. As a result, the Tribunal determined that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits of the application.

The Tribunal made no orders in relation to the merits of the protection visa application, as it had no jurisdiction to do so.