Veras Batista and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (Citizenship)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered applications by Veras Batista and another applicant seeking review of decisions by the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection to refuse their applications for citizenship by conferral. The applicants had arrived in Australia on temporary visas, which subsequently expired, and they were then issued bridging visas. They applied for citizenship, and their applications were refused on the basis that they did not satisfy the general residence requirements under section 22 of the *Citizenship Act 1948* (Cth). The applicants then sought review of these refusal decisions by the Tribunal.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it possessed jurisdiction to review the Minister's decisions. This depended on whether the applicants met the criteria for bringing an application for review under section 52 of the *Citizenship Act*. Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine if the applicants were permanent residents at the time they lodged their applications for review with the Tribunal, as section 52(2) of the Act precludes non-permanent residents from seeking review of decisions made under section 24 of the Act.

The Tribunal reasoned that the Minister's decisions to refuse citizenship were made under section 24 of the *Citizenship Act*. Consequently, section 52(1)(b) of the Act was applicable. The Tribunal noted that section 52(2) of the Act explicitly states that a person who is not a permanent resident cannot apply to the Tribunal for a review of a decision under section 24. The definition of "permanent resident" in section 5 of the Act requires a person to be present in Australia and hold a permanent visa at the relevant time. As the applicants did not hold permanent visas at the time they lodged their applications for review with the Tribunal, they were not considered permanent residents for the purposes of section 52.

Therefore, by operation of subsection 52(2) of the *Citizenship Act*, the Tribunal concluded it had no jurisdiction to hear the applications for review. The applications were dismissed under section 42A(4) of the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth).