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

This matter concerned an application for Australian citizenship by conferral made by the Applicant, a 72-year-old woman born in Iraq. The Applicant's application had been refused by a delegate of the Minister on the grounds that she had not established she was of good character. The Applicant sought a review of this decision before the Tribunal, presided over by Deputy J W Constance P.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the Applicant was of good character at the time of the Minister's decision, as required by section 21(2)(a) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* (Cth). This requirement is a prerequisite for the Minister to approve an application for citizenship under section 24 of the Act.

The Tribunal found that the Applicant had provided false and misleading information to the Department regarding the existence of her two children when applying for her Woman at Risk visa in 2011. While acknowledging factors such as the Applicant's age, ill-health, isolation as a refugee, and the trauma she had experienced, the Tribunal noted that the Applicant had continued to mislead the Department on multiple occasions, even after being warned about the provision of false information in 2011 and again in 2019. The Tribunal concluded that these repeated instances of dishonesty, particularly after receiving warnings and being represented by a migration agent, demonstrated a lack of good character. Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision to refuse the application.