1835366 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa made by an applicant who had departed Australia. The Tribunal was required to determine 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 criterion that they be a non-citizen in Australia, as stipulated by section 36(2) of the relevant Act. This criterion is a prerequisite for the grant of a protection visa.

The Tribunal reasoned that movement records indicated the applicant had left Australia in December 2019. Despite notifying the applicant's representative of this information and inviting comment, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicant was no longer in Australia. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not meet the essential criterion of being in Australia, rendering it unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of the protection claim. The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the protection visa.