This lack of understanding affects decision-making, service provision, and advocacy efforts, as statelessness-specific needs are often overlooked or misunderstood. Lack of knowledge and information about statelessness, including accurate country-specific information pertaining to stateless groups can contribute to a reluctance by decision makers to engage in questions of statelessness or determinations of statelessness. “You’d think it would be easier to try and determine whether they were stateless based on the laws of the countries, but … perhaps they feel like it’s such a loaded decision to make that someone’s stateless—they (the Department) might not want to go there because of the lack of understanding around it and the lack of guidelines around it.” — Australian Legal Practitioner 4.1.4 Stateless people are not visible in policy and programs Statelessness is rarely addressed explicitly in Australian migration policy or service delivery program guidelines. Support for stateless people often inadvertently sits under the umbrella of refugee service provision despite the fact statelessness is distinct from refugee status and that stateless people may have distinct vulnerabilities and needs. Administrative invisibility and barriers Stateless people (and those assisting them) often experience administrative barriers in instances where government forms require an applicant to list their nationality, yet the category of ‘stateless’ is not recognised or available. This is compounded in instances where the Australian government requires a person to complete an application using an electronic, rather than paper application form. For example, stateless adults applying for Australian citizenship are required to complete a ‘1300t Application for Australian Citizenship’ form online, through their Immiaccount. The application requires a certain number of identification documents to be uploaded to the application portal (and assumes the applicant is technologically literate, something stakeholders interviewed for this Project identified as a challenge for many older stateless people in Australia who have lacked any formal education). Once uploaded, each document requires that the applicant state their ‘nationality’ as listed on the identification document, by choosing from a mandated ‘drop down’ selection of nationality categories. No category is provided for ‘stateless,’ ‘other’ or ‘miscellaneous’. The applicant is prohibited by the application software from proceeding to the next stage of the application form until they select a nationality from the list provided. There is no space or option for providing information as to why the list of ‘nationalities’ provided is not applicable to the applicant. Screenshot of online adult application for Australian citizenship (form 1300t) indicating no category for ‘Stateless’ in the mandatory ‘nationality’ drop down box required to be completed when identity document is uploaded to application. No category for ‘unknown’ or ‘Misc’ is available—applicants must select a nationality regardless of not having one, potentially jeopardising their claim of statelessness. 36 Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness | Understanding Statelessness in Australia