Azari (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered a decision to refuse a Visitor (Class FA) visa, Subclass 600 (Tourist stream), to an applicant who had failed to provide required personal identifiers. The dispute centred on whether the applicant had satisfied the relevant provisions of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and *Migration Regulations 1994* (Cth).

The Tribunal was required to determine if the applicant had complied with a requirement to provide personal identifiers, specifically fingerprint scans and a digital facial photograph, as mandated under section 257A of the Act. The core legal issue was whether the applicant's failure to comply with this requirement, within the timeframe specified by the delegate, prevented the grant of the visa under section 40 of the Act and regulation 2.04 of the Regulations.

The Tribunal reasoned that section 40 of the *Migration Act* prevents the grant of a visa if an applicant outside Australia has been required to provide personal identifiers under section 257A and has not complied with that requirement, unless the requirement has been withdrawn. Regulation 2.04 further stipulates that a visa may be granted if the requirement to provide personal identifiers has been complied with or withdrawn. In this instance, the applicant was formally requested to provide biometric data by a delegate on 19 January 2020, with a 14-day timeframe to comply. The applicant failed to provide the requested data within this period, and the requirement was not withdrawn. The Tribunal found that this non-compliance was not a mere technicality but a substantive impediment to visa grant.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision, concluding that it was prevented by section 40 of the *Migration Act* from granting the Visitor visa due to the applicant's failure to provide the required personal identifiers.