1918780 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for protection visas by individuals who had departed Australia. The core of the dispute concerned whether the applicants met the fundamental eligibility criterion for a protection visa, namely being a non-citizen present in Australia at the time of the decision.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicants satisfied the criterion stipulated in section 36(2) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), which mandates that an applicant for a protection visa must be a non-citizen in Australia. This determination was crucial as it formed a prerequisite for the grant of such a visa under section 65(1) of the Act.

The Tribunal's reasoning focused on movement records which indicated that the applicants had left Australia in March 2020. Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicants were not in Australia at the time of the decision. As this essential criterion was not met, the Tribunal concluded that it was unnecessary to consider the substantive claims for protection. The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the protection visas.