Houston (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application for review by Mr Shavron Sheldon Houston, Mrs Simone Eileen Houston, Miss Samara Deanna Houston, and Mr Shiloh Jacques Houston. The applicants sought a review of a delegate of the Minister for Immigration's decision made on 21 October 2020 to cancel Mr Houston's Temporary Business Entry (Class UC) visa, subclass 457 (Temporary Work (Skilled)). The review application was lodged with the Tribunal on 2 November 2020.

The primary 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. Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine the date on which the applicants were notified of the visa cancellation decision and whether the application for review was filed within the statutory timeframe of seven working days thereafter, as stipulated by section 347(1)(b) of the Migration Act 1958 and regulation 4.10 of the Migration Regulations 1994.

The Tribunal reasoned that, pursuant to section 494C of the Migration Act, the applicants were taken to have been notified of the cancellation decision on Wednesday, 21 October 2020, the date the notice was dispatched by email. Consequently, the prescribed period for lodging an application for review expired on 30 October 2020. The Tribunal found no error or failure in the notification process and noted that it possessed no discretion to extend the mandatory time limit for filing an application for review. As the application was lodged on 2 November 2020, it was out of time.

Accordingly, the Tribunal concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to review the decision to cancel the visa.