1705385 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa by a Vietnamese national. The applicant sought review of a decision not to grant her a protection visa.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant satisfied the criterion for a protection visa that she must be a non-citizen *in Australia*.

The Tribunal reasoned that under section 36(2) of the relevant Act, a protection visa can only be granted if the applicant is physically present in Australia. Movement records indicated that the applicant had departed Australia in April 2019. The Tribunal notified the applicant of this information and invited her to comment, but she did not respond. Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicant was not in Australia and therefore did not meet the statutory requirement for the grant of a protection visa. The Tribunal concluded that it was unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of her protection claim.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa.