A letter arrives from the Department with a period to respond in. People count that period from the day they read the email. The Act does not count it that way, and the gap between those two methods of counting is where responses are lost.
The deadline turns on a deemed date of receipt, fixed by statute according to how the document was sent — not on when you actually saw it. This sets out how that works, verified against the Migration Act 1958, Compilation No. 171 (C2026C00232, in force 4 June 2026).
The period itself
Section 58(2) provides that where an invitation is to give additional information or comments otherwise than at an interview, the response is to be given within a period specified in the invitation, being a prescribed period or, if no period is prescribed, a reasonable period.
So the letter names the period. Section 58(4) adds that where the response is due within a prescribed period, that period may be extended by the Minister for a prescribed further period — an extension is a possibility, not a right, and it is sought rather than assumed.
Where the period starts
This is the part that catches people. A period runs from receipt, and receipt is defined by section 494C according to the method used under section 494B.
| How it was sent | You are taken to have received it |
|---|---|
| Handed to you | When it is handed to you |
| Handed to someone at your last address | When it is handed to that other person |
| Prepaid post, Australia to an Australian address | 7 working days after the date of the document |
| Prepaid post, any other case | 21 days after the date of the document |
| Fax, email or other electronic means | End of the day it is transmitted |
| Made available in an online account | End of the day it is made available |
Three consequences follow, and each of them ends responses.
Email and ImmiAccount give you nothing. Under section 494C(5) and (6), receipt is deemed at the end of the day the document is transmitted or made available. There is no postal-style grace period. A notice placed in ImmiAccount on a Friday is received that Friday, whether or not anyone logged in.
The postal clock runs from the date on the document, not the postmark or the delivery. Section 494C(4) counts from the date of the document. Section 494B(4) requires the Minister to dispatch within 3 working days of that date, but the count in 494C(4) is still from the document's own date.
"Working days" is not "days". The 7-working-day rule is expressly working days in the place of the address. The 21-day rule for anything else is plain days. They are different units in adjacent paragraphs of the same subsection.
A postal example, worked
A letter dated Tuesday 1 September 2026, posted from Australia to an Australian address, with a 28-day period to respond.
- Deemed received 7 working days after 1 September. Counting the working days that follow — Wednesday 2, Thursday 3, Friday 4, then Monday 7, Tuesday 8, Wednesday 9, Thursday 10 September — the seventh is Thursday 10 September.
- The 28 days run from there, not from the day the envelope arrived.
The count assumes no public holiday falls in that stretch in the place of the address; one would push the seventh working day out by a day.
Someone who counts from the day the envelope actually landed in their letterbox may be counting from a later date than the Act allows, and they lose the difference.
The error provision, which does not help you
Section 494C(7) covers the case where the Minister purports to give a document by one of the section 494B methods but makes an error, and the person nonetheless receives the document or a copy of it.
Despite the error, the document is taken to have been given by that method, and the person is taken to have received it at the time specified for that method — or, if the person can show they received it at a later time, at that later time.
Read that carefully. A procedural error does not by itself reset the clock. It reopens the question only to the extent the person can actually demonstrate later receipt.
The authorised recipient trap
Section 494D provides that where a person gives the Minister written notice of an authorised recipient to receive documents in connection with specified matters, the Minister must give the authorised recipient, instead of the first person, documents that would otherwise go to them.
The practical effect: if an agent or representative is on file as the authorised recipient, the Department writes to them, and the deemed receipt runs from that delivery. An applicant who is waiting for something to arrive at their own address may already be inside the period without knowing it. If a representative has changed, or is no longer acting, that record needs correcting before a letter is sent, not after.
What happens when the period expires
Section 62 is short and unforgiving.
Where an applicant is invited to give additional information and does not give it before the time has passed, the Minister may decide to grant or refuse the visa without taking any action to obtain it. Where an applicant is invited to comment on information and does not comment in time, the Minister may decide without taking any further action to obtain the applicant's views.
No reminder is required. No second invitation is required. The file moves to decision, and for a section 57 letter that means the adverse material goes to the decision-maker unanswered.
Which letter you are answering still matters
The counting rules are the same for both, but what a good response contains is not. A section 56 invitation asks for information; a section 57 invitation asks for comment on adverse, applicant-specific information the Department obtained elsewhere. The difference, and why it decides how the reply should be written, is in section 56 versus section 57.
Do this on the day the letter arrives
Three things, before anything is drafted:
- Identify the method. Email, ImmiAccount, or post — it is usually evident from how the document reached you, and it sets the rule.
- Find the date on the document, not the date you opened it.
- Compute the last day and write it down. Then work backwards from it, leaving room to obtain anything you need from a third party.
Where a period is genuinely too short for evidence that must come from a doctor, an employer or an overseas authority, section 58(4) makes an extension possible — but it has to be requested inside the period, with a reason, not explained afterwards.
Migration Vision responds to section 56 and section 57 invitations for clients across Australia and offshore. Nobody can promise an outcome — what can be done is to make sure the deadline is the real one and the reply lands inside it.
Reviewed by Dr Asad Muhammad Khan, Registered Migration Agent, MARN 2619525. Updated 5 September 2026 — sections 58, 62, 494B, 494C and 494D of the Migration Act 1958 (Compilation No. 171, C2026C00232, in force 4 June 2026) read from source on legislation.gov.au. The worked example is an illustration of the counting rule, not advice about any particular letter. This article is general information, not migration advice for your circumstances, and the law may change.
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