APN19 v Minister for Immigration

The applicant sought judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia. The dispute concerned the AAT's determination that it lacked jurisdiction to review a delegate's decision to refuse the applicant a Protection (Class XA) visa. The AAT found that the applicant's application for review was lodged outside the prescribed time limit, and it had no discretion to extend this period.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the AAT had made a jurisdictional error in finding that it lacked jurisdiction. This required the Court to consider whether the applicant had been validly notified of the delegate's decision and, consequently, whether her application for review to the AAT was lodged within the statutory timeframes. The applicant also raised grounds relating to natural justice, procedural fairness, and the opportunity to present her case, which the Court considered in the context of jurisdictional error.

Judge Kendall reasoned that the applicant had agreed to receive correspondence via email and that the notification letter advising of the delegate's decision was sent to her nominated email address on 8 November 2018. The Court found that the applicant was taken to have been notified on that date, meaning the 28-day period for lodging an application for review expired on 5 December 2018. As the applicant lodged her application with the AAT on 10 December 2018, it was out of time. The Court affirmed the AAT's finding that it had no power to extend the time limit for lodging an application for review, citing relevant provisions of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) and Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth), and the precedent established in *Beni v MIBP* [2018] FCAFC 228. The Court concluded that the AAT had not engaged in jurisdictional error.

Consequently, the Court dismissed the applicant's application for judicial review. The applicant was ordered to pay the first respondent's costs fixed at $5,000.