1823621 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa made by a non-citizen. The applicant had previously departed Australia and had not returned. The Tribunal was tasked with determining whether the applicant met the criteria for the grant of a protection visa.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant satisfied the requirement that they be a non-citizen *in Australia* at the time of the decision, as stipulated by section 36(2) of the relevant Act. This criterion is a prerequisite for the grant of a protection visa under section 65(1) of the Act.

The Tribunal's reasoning focused on the applicant's physical presence in Australia. Movement records indicated that the applicant had left Australia in March 2019 and had not subsequently returned. The Tribunal notified the applicant of this information and invited comment, but no response was received. Based on the available evidence, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicant was not in Australia. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant failed to meet the criterion of being in Australia, rendering them ineligible for a protection visa. The Tribunal deemed it unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of the applicant's protection claim.

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