2424698 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application for review of a decision to refuse a protection visa. The applicant, who had been notified of the refusal of their visa application, sought to have this decision reviewed by the Tribunal.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it had jurisdiction to hear the application for review, given that it was lodged outside the prescribed time limit. The Tribunal was required to determine if the application had been made in accordance with the relevant legislative provisions governing the time for lodging such reviews.

The Tribunal found that the application for review was received on 24 July 2024, which was more than 28 days after the notification of the visa application refusal. As the Tribunal has no power to extend this time limit, it concluded that the application was not made in accordance with the relevant legislation. Consequently, the Tribunal determined that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits of the application.

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