1802220 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa made by a non-citizen who had previously been in Australia. The applicant sought review of 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 required the Tribunal to determine the applicant's location at the time of the decision.

The Tribunal reasoned that under section 36(2) of the relevant Act, a protection visa can only be granted if the applicant is in Australia. Movement records indicated that the applicant had left Australia in September 2019. 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 essential criterion for the grant of a protection visa. As this threshold requirement was not met, the Tribunal found it unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of the applicant's protection claims.

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