1606733 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa by an applicant from Fiji. The applicant had departed Australia, and the Tribunal was reviewing a decision not to grant the visa.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant met the criterion for a protection visa that they must be a non-citizen *in* Australia. This criterion is stipulated by section 36(2) of the relevant Act.

The Tribunal reasoned that section 65(1) of the Act requires a decision maker to be satisfied that prescribed criteria for a visa have been met. As section 36(2) mandates that an applicant for a protection visa must be in Australia, the Tribunal examined movement records. These records indicated the applicant had left Australia in April 2018. The Tribunal notified the applicant of this information and invited comment, but received no response. Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicant was not in Australia and therefore did not meet the criterion under section 36(2).

The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa, finding it unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of the protection claim given the applicant's absence from Australia.