2307578 (Refugee)

The applicant sought review of a decision concerning a protection visa. The dispute centred on whether the applicant's application for review was lodged within the time prescribed by the relevant legislation. The matter came before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it had jurisdiction to hear the application for review, given that the application was lodged significantly out of time. This required the Tribunal to determine the date on which the applicant was taken to have been notified of the original decision, and consequently, the date by which the application for review ought to have been filed.

The Tribunal applied section 494C of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), which deems notification of a decision to have occurred on a specific date. In this instance, the Tribunal found that the applicant was taken to have been notified of the decision on 31 July 2020. This established that the prescribed period for lodging an application for review expired on 27 August 2020. As the application was not received by the Tribunal until 30 May 2023, it was not made in accordance with the relevant legislative requirements.

Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the application for review.