An Indian-origin man, whose Australian citizenship was canceled after he repeatedly lied on various visa and citizenship applications, has had his citizenship reinstated.
According to a report on SBS.com, Randeep Singh Waraich was caught for lying and his citizenship was revoked by the then-Minister of Immigration Peter Dutton. However, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia (AAT) has set aside Dutton’s decision and said that Waraich is entitled to have the revocation of his Australian citizenship reversed.
The news portal reported that Waraich, who lives with his wife and two children and runs his own business in Melbourne, first arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998.
When he came to Australia, he called himself Amardeep Singh. In 2002, he left Australia as an unlawful non-citizen after overstaying his student visa.
While in India, he changed his name to Randeep Singh after consulting an astrologer who advised him to change his name to one starting with the letter ‘R’ for better luck, the portal reported.
He married Preet Waraich and when the couple decided to come to Australia, he applied as a dependent on his wife’s student visa without revealing his past in Australia. He came back to Australia in 2004 as Randeep Singh and in 2006, he was granted a permanent visa in his wife’s skilled migration application as a dependent, the portal reported.
In March 2009, he changed his name as Randeep Singh Waraich and in November of the same year became an Australian citizen, according to the report.
While starting his new life in Australia as Randeep, he did not declare his previous immigration history or name.
The news report said that in 2012 VicRoads discovered that photos on licenses for Amardeep Singh and Randeep Singh Waraich were of the same person and they referred the matter to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
Singh accepted his wrongdoing after being summoned by the Immigration Department and pleaded guilty. He was convicted on charges of knowingly making false statements on a citizenship application and producing an official document containing false or misleading statements, SBS.com wrote.
He said he had not declared his previous name or prior immigration history because he feared that the visa would not be granted.