KAUR v Minister for Immigration

In *Kaur v Minister for Immigration*, Judge Cameron of the Federal Circuit Court considered a dispute concerning the validity of a review application lodged with the Migration Review Tribunal. The applicant sought review of a decision made by the Minister for Immigration, but her application was challenged on the grounds that she had not complied with the prescribed requirements for lodging such an application.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the applicant had made a valid application for review to the Tribunal. This required determining whether the applicant had satisfied the requirements of section 347 of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), specifically regarding the payment of the prescribed fee and the provision of sufficient evidence to support a request for a fee reduction due to severe financial hardship.

Judge Cameron reasoned that section 347(1)(c) mandated that an application for review be accompanied by the prescribed fee, unless regulations provided otherwise. Regulation 4.13 permitted a reduction in the fee if severe financial hardship was demonstrated. The applicant had requested a fee reduction, but the Tribunal refused this request due to insufficient documentary evidence. The Tribunal had clearly advised the applicant that the full fee of $1,604 was payable by 23 May 2014, and that failure to pay would result in her application being assessed for validity, with a potential determination that it was invalid. The applicant had not provided the fee or further evidence to support her claim of hardship. The Court found that the applicant had not satisfied the requirements of section 347(1)(c) by failing to pay the prescribed fee or by failing to provide sufficient evidence to justify a fee reduction.