1807197 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa made by a non-citizen who was not in Australia. The applicant had previously been in Australia but had departed in December 2018. The Tribunal sought to confirm the applicant's location and invited comment.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa. Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine if the applicant was a non-citizen in Australia, as required by section 36(2) of the relevant Act.

The Tribunal's reasoning focused on the jurisdictional requirement that an applicant must be in Australia to be eligible for a protection visa. Movement records and the applicant's own correspondence confirmed that he had returned to Vietnam. As the applicant was not physically present in Australia, he failed to satisfy the criterion stipulated in section 36(2) of the Act. Consequently, the Tribunal found it unnecessary to assess the substantive grounds of the applicant's protection claim.

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