1604319 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application for protection visas made by offshore applicants. The dispute centred on whether the applicants met the threshold requirement for the grant of a protection visa, specifically their physical presence in Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicants satisfied the criterion stipulated in section 36(2) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), which requires an applicant for a protection visa to be a non-citizen in Australia. The Tribunal also had to determine whether to grant an extension of time for the applicants to respond to a notification that they appeared to be offshore.

The Tribunal reasoned that section 36(2) of the Act mandates that an applicant must be in Australia to be eligible for a protection visa. The Department of Immigration's records indicated that the applicants had departed Australia. Despite the applicants' request for an extension to provide further documentation, the Tribunal declined to grant it, finding that the request did not address the fundamental issue of their offshore status. The Tribunal concluded that the applicants had not provided a satisfactory response to the notification that they were offshore and therefore did not meet the threshold requirement for a protection visa. Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the protection visas, without needing to consider the substantive claims for protection.