El Masri and Minister for Home Affairs (Citizenship)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the application of Mr El Masri for Australian citizenship by conferral, against a decision of the Minister for Home Affairs to affirm a refusal of his application. The applicant had lodged his application for citizenship on 22 August 2016.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant met the requirements of section 21(2)(a) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* (Cth), specifically whether he had sat and successfully completed the approved citizenship test. The applicant had attempted the test on multiple occasions between February and October 2017 but had not achieved the required score of 75% or more.

The Tribunal acknowledged the applicant's evidence that he had tried and that he sometimes succeeded in practice tests at home. However, the Tribunal found that the evidence before it indicated that the applicant had not successfully completed the required citizenship test. Applying the provisions of section 21(2)(a) of the Act, which stipulates that certain subsections can only be satisfied if the applicant has sat and successfully completed the test, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not satisfy section 21(2) of the Act.