Church of Scientology Australia (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered a review application concerning a Subclass 408 (Temporary Activity) visa. The applicant, Mr. Wang, sought review of the Department's decision to refuse his visa application.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether Mr. Wang's application for review had been lodged within the time prescribed by the relevant legislation. This involved determining the date on which Mr. Wang was deemed to have been notified of the Department's refusal decision.

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 Mr. Wang was taken to have been notified of the refusal on 30 October 2018. Consequently, the prescribed period for lodging a review application expired on 20 November 2018. As the Tribunal did not receive the review application until 29 November 2018, it concluded that the application was out of time.

Accordingly, the Tribunal determined that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits of Mr. Wang's application for review.