2315727 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of China, sought review of a decision by the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs to refuse to grant a protection visa. The application for review was lodged with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) outside the prescribed time limit. The AAT, constituted by Member Nora Lamont, was therefore required to determine whether it had jurisdiction to consider the review application, given its late lodgement.

The central legal issue before the AAT was whether it possessed the power to extend the time for lodging an application for review of a protection visa refusal. This question turned on the interpretation of the relevant provisions of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth), specifically concerning the Tribunal's jurisdiction and its power to grant extensions of time in protection visa matters.

Member Lamont found that the *Migration Act* did not confer upon the AAT the power to extend the time for lodging an application for review in protection visa cases. The Tribunal's jurisdiction in such matters is strictly circumscribed by the statutory time limits. Consequently, as the application was lodged out of time and the AAT lacked the power to extend that time, the Tribunal had no jurisdiction to proceed with the substantive review of the protection visa refusal. The Tribunal therefore dismissed the application for review.