Australian Citizenship Refusal due to Traffic Offence
Visa applicants in Australia awaiting decision on their citizenship application may want to be careful with simple offences and petty crimes as an Iranian refugee’s application for citizenship was refused on the basis of not satisfying the good character requirement.
In a news report by Special Broadcasting Service Punjabi in 2019, Mr. Habib (not his real name), who was granted a permanent protection visa in 2012, had applied for a review of his case before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) after the Department denied his citizenship application for driving while in a suspended sentence in 2017.
However, the AAT found during Mr. Habib’s case review that another traffic-related offence was pending in the court against him, where he was charged with exceeding the speed limit by 20 to 29 km/hour.
In his defence, Mr. Habib said that he provided details of all his traffic offences in his citizenship application for transparency, and had he known that his good behaviour bond was still on, he would’ve waited for another couple of months before applying again.
The good behaviour bond & character is a non-custodial sentencing option for minor criminal offences imposed on an offender. In a nutshell, it is an order from a judge or magistrate that a person be of “good behaviour” for a specific amount of time which may or may not include conditions such as probation officer supervision, mandatory medical treatment or participation in a rehabilitation program, and counselling and intervention programs rather than serving a jail time.
How Can Agape Henry Crux Help You?
If you encountered a similar situation and need advice on your Australian citizenship matter, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can book a Migration Planning Session with one of our immigration lawyers or Accredited Specialist in Immigration Law to seek professional advice by calling 02-8310-5230 or email us to book in a time at info@ahclawyers.com.
We speak fluent English, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian, Burmese and Malay. If these aren’t your language, we can also help you arrange an interpreter.
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