1816472 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa made by a non-citizen. The applicant had previously been in Australia but had departed the country. The core of the dispute concerned whether the applicant met the fundamental eligibility criterion for a protection visa, which requires the applicant to be physically present in Australia.

The Tribunal was required to determine if the applicant satisfied the criterion that they be a non-citizen in Australia, as stipulated by section 36(2) of the relevant Act, for the grant of a protection visa. This involved assessing whether the applicant's presence in Australia at the time of the decision was established.

The Tribunal's reasoning was based on the evidence of movement records, which indicated the applicant had left Australia in March 2020. The Tribunal communicated this information to the applicant, inviting comment, but received no response. Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicant was not in Australia and therefore did not meet the essential requirement of section 36(2). As this threshold criterion was not met, the Tribunal concluded it was unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of the applicant's protection claim. The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the protection visa.