Erp17 v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, who claimed to be a citizen of the Ivory Coast fearing harm due to his political affiliations, sought judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The Tribunal had affirmed a delegate's decision to refuse him a protection visa. The applicant had arrived in Australia using a Ghanaian passport, which he alleged was false, and claimed to be a supporter of the former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. The Tribunal, however, found that the applicant was a citizen of Ghana and that the passport was his genuine Ghanaian passport. The matter came before Dowdy J in the Federal Court.

The primary legal issues before the Court were whether the applicant had established a sufficient basis for an extension of time to file his application for judicial review, and if so, whether any of his proposed substantive grounds of review had reasonable prospects of success. The applicant required an eleven-day extension of time under section 477(2) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth).

Dowdy J refused the application for an extension of time. His Honour found that the applicant had not provided a reasonable explanation for the significant delay in filing his application. Furthermore, His Honour concluded that the applicant had no reasonable prospects of success on any of the substantive grounds he sought to raise. Consequently, the application for an extension of time was dismissed.