Thenabadu (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a Visitor (Class FA) visa, subclass 600. The applicant had initially failed to provide Australian and overseas police clearance certificates when requested by the original decision-maker. The applicant subsequently provided an Australian Federal Police National Police Certificate dated 21 December 2022, which disclosed no criminal record, and a Sri Lankan police clearance certificate dated 31 December 2022, after advising that the application for it was in its final stages.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant had provided a statement from an appropriate authority that evidenced whether or not they had a criminal history, as required by the Migration Regulations. Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine if the certificates provided satisfied the requirements of regulation 2.03AA(2)(a).

The Tribunal reasoned that the applicant had, in fact, provided statements from the appropriate authorities, namely the Australian Federal Police and the relevant Sri Lankan authority. By providing these certificates, the applicant met the criteria stipulated in regulation 2.03AA(2)(a). Consequently, the Tribunal remitted the application for reconsideration of the Visitor (Class FA) visa, subclass 600, with a direction that the applicant satisfied the criteria under regulation 2.03AA(2).