Vu v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, the sponsor son, sought judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) which found it lacked jurisdiction to consider his application for review of a decision to refuse his mother an aged parent visa. The Delegate of the Minister for Immigration had refused the visa application, and the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) stipulated that an application for review to the AAT must be made by the aged mother applicant herself, not the sponsor son. The sponsor son had lodged the application for review with the AAT, acting on incorrect advice received from the Department of Immigration.

The central legal issue before Dowdy J was whether the AAT had erred in law by determining it did not have jurisdiction to hear the sponsor son's application for review. This required the court to consider the proper interpretation of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) concerning who is entitled to make an application for review to the AAT in circumstances involving an aged parent visa application.

Dowdy J reasoned that the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) clearly prescribed that the applicant for the visa, in this instance the aged mother, was the only person empowered to make an application for review to the AAT. The AAT's finding that the application lodged by the sponsor son was not a valid application and that it therefore lacked jurisdiction was correct. While acknowledging the unfortunate circumstances and recommending the Minister for Immigration consider the matter, the court dismissed the application for judicial review.