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

This matter concerned an application for Australian citizenship by a 17-year-old applicant, a citizen of Sri Lanka, whose application had been refused by the Minister under section 24(2) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* (Cth). The applicant, who had arrived in Australia with her family in 2015 and held permanent residency, sought to commence university studies in 2021. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal was asked to review the Minister's decision.

The primary legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the applicant satisfied the requirements of the relevant Australian Citizenship Policy, specifically concerning whether she would suffer hardship or disadvantage if her application were refused, and whether there was a cogent reason not to apply the Policy in her circumstances. The applicant's ability to attend university was central to her claim of hardship, as she would be ineligible for youth allowance and HECS support without citizenship, and her family lacked the financial capacity to fund full-fee-paying tertiary education.

The Tribunal considered the applicant's evidence regarding her educational aspirations and the financial implications of not being a citizen. It accepted that the applicant would face significant difficulty, potentially impossibility, in attending university without citizenship due to the substantial financial burden. The Tribunal also noted a specific, one-off university admission arrangement for 2020, influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, which allowed students to apply based on Year 11 results, offering the applicant a pathway into a health and medicine course. Ultimately, the Tribunal was not satisfied that there was an appropriate basis to exercise the discretion under section 24(2) to refuse citizenship.

Consequently, the Tribunal set aside the Minister's decision and substituted it with a decision that the applicant shall not be refused Australian citizenship, thereby exercising its discretion under section 24(2) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* in favour of the applicant.