2414055 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of Vietnam, sought review of a decision by the Minister 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 merits of the applicant's review application, given the out-of-time lodgement.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it possessed the power to extend the time for lodging an application for review of a protection visa refusal. This involved an 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 ability to waive or extend statutory time limits in the context of protection visa applications.

The Tribunal considered the wording of the applicable legislative provisions and relevant case law. It concluded that the *Migration Act* did not confer upon the AAT a general discretion to extend the time for lodging an application for review in protection visa matters. Member Lamont found that the time limits prescribed by the *Migration Act* were jurisdictional requirements, and failure to comply with them meant the Tribunal lacked the power to proceed with the review. Consequently, the Tribunal held that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the applicant's review application.

The Tribunal made no order in relation to the merits of the protection visa refusal, as it lacked the jurisdiction to do so.