Al Khalaf and Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs (Citizenship)

This matter concerned an application for Australian citizenship by conferral made by Mr Al Khalaf. The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs opposed the application. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal was required to determine whether it was satisfied of Mr Al Khalaf's identity for the purposes of the application.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the evidence presented established Mr Al Khalaf's identity with sufficient certainty, particularly in light of conflicting information regarding his place of birth and citizenship status. Specifically, the Tribunal had to consider whether Mr Al Khalaf was a stateless Bidoon born in Kuwait or an Iraqi citizen born in Basra, Iraq, and whether any inconsistencies in his personal and biographical data prevented the Tribunal from being satisfied of his identity under the relevant provisions of the *Citizenship Act*, the Citizenship Policy, and CPI 16.

The Tribunal applied the "three pillars" methodology for assessing identity, which requires verification of a person's identity incrementally throughout their life and consideration of the consistency of information across biometrics, documents, and life story. While Mr Al Khalaf's name and date of birth were not in dispute, significant inconsistencies existed between his citizenship application form, which stated he was an Iraqi citizen born in Kuwait, and other documents, including a titre de voyage indicating he was 'STATELESS' and born in Kuwait City, and an Iraqi identity card stating his place of birth was Abu Al-Khaseeb, Basra. Mr Al Khalaf attributed these discrepancies to errors by interpreters and his inability to read English. However, the Tribunal found that these inconsistencies meant it could not be satisfied of Mr Al Khalaf's identity as required by subsection 24(3) of the *Citizenship Act*.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision under review, meaning Mr Al Khalaf's application for Australian citizenship by conferral was not granted.