SZMOX v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection

The appellants, citizens of the Republic of Korea who arrived in Australia in 2004, appealed against the Federal Circuit Court's dismissal of their applications for judicial review of the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection's decisions to reject their protection visa applications. The appellants contended that their earlier applications were not valid because they were not in the correct form, specifically Form 866 as it existed on 20 October 1999, when the Regulations were implemented. They argued that item 1401 of Schedule 1 to the Migration Regulations 1994 referred to a specific version of Form 866, and that section 14 of the Legislation Act 2003 was engaged to incorporate that specific previous version of Form 866. The appellants also argued that there was no manifest contrary intention in section 495 of the Migration Act 1958 to incorporate a specific previous version of Form 866. The court was required to decide whether the appellants' earlier applications were valid and whether the Minister's decision to reject the later applications was correct. The court found that the appellants' arguments were without merit, as the relevant legislation did not incorporate a specific previous version of Form 866, and there was no manifest contrary intention to do so. The court relied on the decision of Burley J in BVJ6 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2017] FCA 1205, which involved similar arguments and was dismissed. The appeals were dismissed with costs.