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

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) considered an application for review of a decision by a delegate of the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs to refuse the applicant's application for Australian citizenship by conferral. The refusal was based on the delegate's dissatisfaction that the applicant was of good character, as required by section 21(2)(h) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* (Cth), due to the provision of a fraudulent Sudanese driver's licence in support of her application.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant was of good character as at 5 January 2017. This required the Tribunal to determine if the applicant had acted honestly in providing the Sudanese driver's licence, which was subsequently found to be counterfeit and not issued to her. The applicant contended that she did not knowingly obtain a counterfeit licence, that her reliance on a "fixer" to obtain the licence was an innocent mistake due to the corrupt environment in Sudan, and that she believed the licence to be genuine until informed otherwise by Australian authorities.

The Tribunal considered the applicant's evidence that she used a fixer to obtain the Sudanese driver's licence in 2007 because she and her friends did not speak the language and believed the authorities did not operate properly. She stated she believed the fixer was genuine, was introduced by someone from her church who assured her it was common practice, and only later realised the extent of corruption in Sudan. The Tribunal noted the applicant's submissions that she had no knowledge of the licence's inauthenticity at the time of obtaining it and that any subsequent use was reasonable. The Tribunal also considered the significant time lapse since the licence was obtained and the applicant's lack of any criminal record in Australia.

The Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision to refuse the application for citizenship. The Tribunal was not satisfied that the applicant was of good character, finding that she had not acted honestly in providing a fake driver's licence.