Nothing in a migration practice fails as loudly as a missed review deadline. The Administrative Review Tribunal has no power to extend the application period for most migration decisions — one day late and your client's review right is extinguished, leaving only long-shot alternatives and, very often, a professional indemnity notification and an OMARA complaint. This guide covers the timeframes as they stand in 2026, the notification traps that actually cause missed deadlines, and the practice systems that make them near-impossible to miss.
The ART in brief
The Administrative Review Tribunal commenced on 14 October 2024, replacing the AAT. Migration and refugee matters sit in their own jurisdictional area, and the core mechanics an agent deals with day to day — strict lodgment windows set by the Migration Act and Regulations, merits review on the papers and at hearing, government-party absence in most visa refusal reviews — carried over in substance. What did not carry over is any forgiveness on time: the statutory time limits remain jurisdictional. Lodged in time, the Tribunal can extend almost anything else. Lodged late, there is no review.
The timeframes that matter
The review period depends on the decision type, where the applicant was when notified, and how they were notified. The bands agents see most:
- Most onshore visa refusals — including partner, student and skilled refusals — carry a 21-day application window from deemed notification. This is the deadline that dominates practice risk.
- Some decision types carry longer windows (28 days or more) and offshore-related decisions can differ again — for example, sponsored family refusals where the review right belongs to the sponsor.
- Detention cases compress brutally. A bridging visa cancellation while the person is in immigration detention is measured in working days, not weeks.
- Character-related decisions follow a different pathway with their own — often very short — timeframes, and some are excluded from merits review entirely.
The rule that keeps you safe: the decision letter states the review period that applies. Read it on the day the refusal arrives, calculate the deadline the same day, and never work from memory of what the period "usually" is.
Deemed notification: where deadlines are actually lost
Most missed deadlines are not caused by forgetting the diary entry — they are caused by calculating from the wrong start date. The Migration Act's notification provisions deem when a person was notified, regardless of when they actually read the decision:
- Electronic notification (the norm, via email or ImmiAccount) is generally taken to occur at the end of the day the message is transmitted — not when it is opened.
- Postal notification within Australia is generally deemed to occur a set number of working days after the date of the document.
- Notification to the authorised recipient is notification to the client. If you are the authorised recipient, the clock starts when the Department notifies you. A refusal sitting unread in a practice inbox over a long weekend is already running down your client's 21 days.
Diarise from the date of deemed notification, not the date on the decision record, and not the date the client forwarded it to you. When in doubt, calculate the earliest arguable deadline and work to that.
Fees at the ART in 2026
The application fee for most migration decision reviews was indexed on 1 July 2026 to $3,727. Two settings soften it: a substantial portion (half) of the fee is refunded if the review ends favourably for the applicant, and a reduced fee can be available where paying the full fee would cause severe financial hardship. Certain protection-related applications have different fee settings again. Check the current figures on the ART fees page when quoting, and remember the fee is a disbursement to disclose in your fee estimate alongside your professional costs — our fee benchmarks guide covers how review work is typically priced.
A deadline system that does not depend on heroics
Every practice believes it watches deadlines carefully; the ones that never miss have a system that works when the responsible agent is on leave, sick or buried. The minimum viable system:
- Capture on arrival. The day any refusal or cancellation lands, record the decision type, notification method, deemed notification date and calculated deadline on the matter — before any advice work starts.
- Diarise twice. One reminder at the deadline minus seven days, one at minus two. The early reminder exists so the decision about whether to seek review is made with time to spare, not at 4pm on the last day.
- Second-person check. Someone other than the calculating agent verifies the date arithmetic on every review deadline. Thirty seconds of checking against the notification provisions has saved careers.
- Lodge early, keep proof. Aim to lodge no later than day 14 of 21. Keep the lodgment receipt on file, and never leave a deadline lodgment to a day when systems could be down.
- File-note the advice. If the client instructs you not to seek review, record the advice given, the deadline stated and the instruction received — our file note requirements guide shows what survives scrutiny.
Advising on the merits, not just the mechanics
A review right is not always worth exercising. The fee is significant, current listing times mean clients can wait a long time for a hearing, and some refusals are better answered with a fresh, properly-prepared application where the circumstances allow it. The advice conversation should cover prospects, realistic timeframes, total cost including the tribunal fee, and the bridging visa position while the review runs — our client-facing guide to what to do after a visa refusal is a useful companion piece to send after that conversation.
Make the deadline impossible to miss
Systems beat vigilance. LodgeHQ tracks review windows as first-class deadlines on the matter — automated reminders ahead of the cut-off, deadlines visible across the practice rather than in one agent's calendar, and file notes and advice records kept where the audit will look for them. Start a free 14-day trial and take the heroics out of deadline management.