Start with the decision letter, not with advice
It is the one document that governs. The Tribunal says your letter from the Department of Home Affairs will tell you whether the decision can be reviewed, whether you are a person entitled to apply, and what the time limit is.
Two things in it are read wrong more often than anything else. The deadline runs from when you were notified, which has a legal meaning and is not always the date printed at the top. And a decision that says it cannot be reviewed by the Tribunal is not the same as a decision nothing can be done about, because a court asks a different question and has its own, later, clock.
If you cannot find the letter, or you were told by phone, that is the first thing to fix rather than a reason to wait. It is also the first thing Jenny will ask for.
How long do you have to apply for a review?
Between nine and twenty-eight days, depending on the decision and on where you are. None of them can be extended.
| Your situation | Time to apply | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Most migration and protection decisions, if you are not in immigration detention | 28 days after you were notified | Practice Direction 2.11(b) |
| If you are in immigration detention | 14 days after you were notified | Practice Direction 2.11(a) |
| Expedited character decisions, where you were in the migration zone when the decision was made | 9 days after you received the decision | Practice Direction 5.4(a) |
Lodging does not put the decision on hold. The Tribunal cannot stay the operation of the decision it is reviewing, so what you hold while a review runs is a separate question about bridging visas, and it is one to ask in the same week the letter arrives.
The Tribunal and a court do opposite things
The Tribunal can look at your case again but cannot give you more time. A court can give you more time but cannot look at your case again. Getting that the wrong way round is how people spend a year in the wrong place.
| Administrative Review Tribunal | Federal Circuit and Family Court | |
|---|---|---|
| What it looks at | The merits. It can consider your case again, and you can give it material the Department never saw. | Only whether the decision was made lawfully, which the Court calls a jurisdictional error. It cannot reconsider the facts and generally cannot take new factual information. |
| What it can do | Affirm the decision, vary it, set it aside and substitute a new one, or send it back to the decision maker. | Send the case back to the decision maker and stop the Minister acting on the decision. The Court cannot grant you a visa. |
| How long you have | 28 days from notification, 14 in immigration detention, 9 for an expedited character decision. | 35 days from the date of the decision, which can differ from the date on the letter you were sent. |
| Can that be extended? | No. The Tribunal has no power to extend it. | Yes, if you ask for the extension in the application itself and explain why you need it. |
What does a review cost?
More than most people expect, and it is due earlier than most people expect. The fee depends on which kind of decision is being reviewed.
| Type of review | Fee | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Migration decisions under Part 5 of the Migration Act | $3,727 | Reduced by 50 per cent in cases of financial hardship |
| Character related visa refusals and cancellations | $1,195 | The standard fee applies, not the migration fee |
| Protection decisions | $2,293 | Nothing to pay when you lodge. Payable only if the Tribunal affirms the decision or substitutes its own |
The hardship reduction is where people lose money they did not need to lose. It is worth half the fee, and it only works if the payment is already made by the application deadline, so it has to be dealt with in the same fortnight as everything else. A decision on a fee reduction request cannot itself be reviewed.
How do you find out what the refusal actually turned on?
Once a review is on foot you are entitled to ask the Department for the written material it has given the Tribunal.
Ask as soon as the application is in. The Tribunal will not treat a late request, or the Department not having answered one, as a reason on its own to adjourn a hearing. The Department also runs a free client merits review file request for people with a review already on foot, and it prioritises requests with a hearing date.
What the reasoning turned on is often not what the refusal letter emphasised, which is why the file matters more than the letter once the application is in. The Freedom of Information page sets out every route to your own records, including which of them are free and which one applies to you.
If you are in Australia, section 48 decides your options
If a visa has been refused or cancelled since you last arrived in Australia, and you do not hold a substantive visa, the visas you may apply for while you are still in the country are limited to a list set out in the Migration Regulations.
The provision is section 48 of the Migration Act 1958, headed “Non-citizen refused a visa or whose visa cancelled may only apply for particular visas”. That list is amended from time to time, so which visas are on it today, and whether any of them fits you, is a question to ask before a deadline passes rather than after.
This is the part most people have never heard of, and it is usually what decides whether a review is one option among several or the only one you have. It is also why leaving Australia and applying from outside is sometimes the better move and sometimes the irreversible mistake, depending on what else is on your file.
What makes a case complicated?
Usually one of six things, and each of them changes what is possible rather than just making it slower.
- A refusal or cancellation on character grounds.
- Questions about documents or identity in an earlier application.
- A health requirement that was not met.
- A period in Australia without a visa, or a long absence from it.
- An earlier refusal sitting on the file behind the current one.
- A sponsor, employer or nominator whose own application was refused.
None of these is answerable from a web page, and a page that tried would be guessing at your file. They are on this list so you can recognise your own situation in it and know that it is the kind of matter Jenny takes, rather than the kind she refers on.
What Jenny does with a refusal
Five things, in this order, and the second one is where some people are told to stop.
Reads the letter and works out the date
Which decision it is, whether it can be reviewed, who is entitled to apply, and the day the time runs out. Everything else waits until that is settled.
Says whether there is something to argue
A review is not a second application, and a refusal that turned on a requirement you still do not meet is not made better by lodging one. If there is little prospect she will tell you, in writing, before you commit money to it.
Lodges the application, and the fee, in time
Including a request for the hardship reduction where it applies, which has to be made while the deadline is still open rather than once the review is under way.
Gets the Department’s papers and reads them
The decision record, the file notes, and what the Department has given the Tribunal. What the reasoning actually turned on is often not what the refusal letter emphasised.
Prepares the case and appears at the hearing
The evidence the Tribunal has not seen, the submissions that address the reason for the refusal, and someone in the room who has read all of it.
What a review can end in
- Affirm the decision, which means it agrees with the original one.
- Vary the decision.
- Set the decision aside and substitute a new one.
- Send the decision back to the decision maker to be reconsidered.
Affirming the original decision is on that list, and it is the outcome nobody puts on a website. The Tribunal can dismiss an application it considers has no reasonable prospect of success. Nobody can tell you which way a case will go, and any agent who says otherwise is telling you something they are not allowed to say.
Refusals and cancellations, answered plainly.
If the letter arrived this week, this week is when to act.
Send the decision letter and the date you received it. Jenny will tell you what the deadline is, whether there is something to argue, and when the honest answer is that there is not.
Indicative guidance only, not migration advice. Your details stay private.
Written and checked by Jenny Satya Graha, Registered Migration Agent MARN 0429372. Every time limit, fee and power on this page was checked on 1 September 2026 against the Administrative Review Tribunal’s Practice Direction, fees and possible outcomes pages, its immigration and citizenship guidance, and the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. Time limits, fees and the law itself are set by the Australian Government and change. The limit that applies to you is the one on your own decision letter, and it is the one to act on.