1901980 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa by an applicant from Bangladesh. The applicant had departed Australia, and the Tribunal was reviewing a decision not to grant the visa.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant met the criterion for a protection visa that they must be a non-citizen *in* Australia, as stipulated by section 36(2) of the relevant Act.

The Tribunal reasoned that section 65(1) of the Act requires prescribed criteria to be satisfied for a visa grant. It noted that section 36(2) specifically mandates that an applicant for a protection visa must be in Australia. Movement records indicated the applicant had left Australia in March 2019. The Tribunal notified the applicant of this information and invited comment, but received no reply. Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicant was not in Australia, and therefore did not meet the criterion under section 36(2). As this essential criterion was not met, the Tribunal found it unnecessary to consider the applicant's substantive claims for protection.

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