1704241 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for protection visas by two applicants who had departed Australia. The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicants met the prescribed criteria for the grant of a protection visa.

A key legal issue before the Tribunal was the requirement under section 36(2) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) that an applicant for a protection visa must be a non-citizen in Australia. The Tribunal examined movement records which indicated that both applicants had left Australia, one in September 2019 and the other in April 2017.

The Tribunal applied section 65(1) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), which stipulates that a visa may only be granted if the prescribed criteria are satisfied. As the applicants were not in Australia, they failed to meet the criterion under section 36(2). The Tribunal had notified the applicants of this issue and invited comment, but no response was received. Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicants did not meet the jurisdictional requirement of being in Australia.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the protection visas.