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

This matter concerned an application for review of a decision by a delegate of the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs not to revoke the mandatory cancellation of Mr Walker's visa. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was required to determine whether it had jurisdiction to consider Mr Walker's application, which hinged on the validity of the notification of the delegate's decision and whether Mr Walker had lodged his review application within the prescribed time limit.

The primary legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the notice of the delegate's decision complied with the requirements of section 501G of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and whether Mr Walker's application for review was lodged within the nine-day time limit stipulated by section 500(6B) of the Act. If the notification was valid, the time limit would have commenced, and a failure to lodge within that period would divest the Tribunal of jurisdiction. Conversely, if the notification was defective, the Tribunal would need to consider when Mr Walker was deemed to have received the notice and the subsequent time available for his review application.

The Tribunal found that the notice sent to Mr Walker complied with the requirements of section 501G of the Act. It was sent to the last email address provided to the Department for the purpose of receiving documents, and therefore Mr Walker was taken to have received the notice at the end of 1 April 2019. Consequently, the nine-day time limit for lodging a review application commenced on that date. Mr Walker lodged his application on 27 December 2019, approximately nine months after the notification, which was significantly outside the prescribed time. The Tribunal noted that section 500(6B) of the Act does not grant it any discretion to extend this time limit.

Accordingly, the Tribunal concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to consider Mr Walker's application and dismissed it under section 42A(4) of the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth).