1824463 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa made by a non-citizen. The applicant had left Australia in March 2019, and the Tribunal's records indicated this absence. The dispute centred on whether the applicant remained eligible for a protection visa despite no longer being physically present in Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant satisfied the criterion that they be a non-citizen *in Australia* for the purposes of section 36(2) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), which is a prescribed criterion for the grant of a protection visa. The Tribunal also had to consider the applicant's response, or lack thereof, to the information suggesting they were no longer in Australia.

The Tribunal reasoned that section 36(2) of the Act mandates that an applicant for a protection visa must be in Australia. As movement records clearly indicated the applicant had departed Australia in March 2019, and the applicant failed to respond to the Tribunal's invitation to comment on this information, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicant did not meet this essential criterion. 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 protection visa.