Wang and Minister for Home Affairs (Citizenship)

This matter concerned an application for Australian citizenship by conferral by Mr Wang, with the Minister for Home Affairs as the respondent. The dispute centred on whether Mr Wang met the character requirement for citizenship, specifically in relation to his failure to provide a penal clearance certificate from the People's Republic of China. The decision was made by Chris Puplick AM, Senior Member, of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine whether Mr Wang satisfied the "good character" test as stipulated in section 21(4)(f) of the relevant Act, notwithstanding his inability to produce a penal clearance certificate from China. This involved assessing the weight to be given to the applicant's explanation for not providing the certificate and considering other evidence of his character.

The Tribunal reasoned that while the delegate had given some weight to the applicant's explanation for not providing the Chinese penal clearance, it was inclined to accord more weight to the applicant's character references and his oral testimony, which was largely unchallenged on matters other than bribery allegations. The Tribunal accepted the applicant's statement that he and his son had made genuine efforts to obtain the certificate, but were unsuccessful due to the nature of the process in China and the applicant's perceived risk of passport confiscation. Consequently, the Tribunal found that the applicant met the good character test.

The Tribunal set aside the decision under review.