Fard Kardel (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application for review by Fard Kardel concerning a Skilled Provisional (Class VC) visa, subclass 485. The central dispute revolved around whether the Tribunal had jurisdiction to hear Kardel's application, which had been lodged after the prescribed time limit.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it possessed the discretion to extend the time for lodging a review application in circumstances where the applicant's representative's office was closed for the Christmas and New Year period. The Tribunal was required to determine if this situation constituted a valid reason for the late lodgement and if it conferred jurisdiction despite the statutory timeframes.

The Tribunal determined that the application for review was received on 15 January 2019, which was outside the statutory period for lodgement. Member Katie Malyon found that the legislation did not grant the Tribunal any discretion to extend the time for lodging the application in these circumstances. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits of Kardel's application. The Tribunal therefore made no order in relation to the merits of the visa application itself, as it could not proceed due to the jurisdictional issue.