Lewis and Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs (Migration)

This matter concerned an application by Mr Lewis, a citizen of the United Kingdom, for review of a decision to affirm the mandatory cancellation of his Class BF Transitional (Permanent) visa. Mr Lewis's visa was cancelled under s 501(3A) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) following his conviction for an unauthorised possession of a firearm offence, which resulted in a sentence of imprisonment exceeding 12 months and thus failure of the character test. The delegate of the Minister notified Mr Lewis of the cancellation decision and invited him to make representations regarding its revocation.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether Mr Lewis had made representations within the prescribed 28-day time period, as required by s 501CA(4)(a) of the Act. This was crucial because the power of the Minister to revoke the mandatory cancellation decision was contingent upon representations being made "in accordance with the invitation," which included the timeframes stipulated by the *Migration Regulations 1994* (Cth). The Tribunal was required to determine if the representations made by Mr Lewis were lodged within the period ascertained in accordance with the regulations, thereby enlivening the Minister's power to consider revocation.

The Tribunal found that while the Minister had provided Mr Lewis with notice of the cancellation and an invitation to make representations, and that Mr Lewis had indeed made representations, these were not made within the prescribed timeframe. The notice letter, sent on 5 June 2018, was deemed to have been received by Mr Lewis on 15 June 2018, taking into account weekends and public holidays as per Regulation 2.55. Consequently, the 28-day period for making representations expired on 13 July 2018. As Mr Lewis's representations were not provided to the Minister until 24 July 2018, they were made outside the stipulated period. The Tribunal held that the jurisdictional fact required by s 501CA(4)(a) for the Minister to exercise the power to revoke the cancellation decision was not met, as the representations were not made "in accordance with the invitation" as required by the Act and Regulations. The Tribunal affirmed the decision under review.