Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v Farag [2015] FCA 646

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v Farag [2015] FCA 646 Citation: Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v Farag [2015] FCA 646

Appeal from: Farag and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2014] AATA 927

Parties: MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND BORDER PROTECTION v MINA MOUNIR FARAG and ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL

File number: NSD 37 of 2015

Judge: ROBERTSON J

Date of judgment: 30 June 2015

Catchwords: CITIZENSHIP – appeal on a question of law from Administrative Appeals Tribunal (Tribunal) – Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) – whether a person eligible to become an Australian citizen under s 21(2) – general residence requirement in s 22 – where person does not satisfy the general residence requirement that he was not present in Australia as an unlawful non-citizen at any time during the period of 4 years immediately before the day he made the application to the Minister to become an Australian citizen – statutory discretion in s 22(4A) to treat a period as one in which the person was not present in Australia as an unlawful non-citizen if the Minister considers the person was present in Australia during that period but, because of an administrative error, was an unlawful non-citizen during that period – Tribunal found letter from Department to person to be an administrative error and because of that the person became an unlawful non-citizen – whether error of law on the part of the Tribunal – whether Tribunal misconstrued "administrative error" – whether Tribunal applied a wrong test in determining whether the person had become an unlawful non-citizen "because of" an administrative error – whether evidence included probative material