A person could have their Australian citizenship revoked even if a court acquits them of terrorism-related charges, under proposed counter-terrorism laws.
And they don't have to be told they've lost their passport, nor given reasons about why.
The Department of Immigration made the admissions during an inquiry into the controversial citizenship-stripping legislation before parliament.
Department boss Michael Pezzullo admitted a notice to revoke someone's citizenship would still be issued even if a court could not find they had engaged in terrorism.
"It's conceivable that a notice would have to be issued in the circumstances where a court could not be satisfied ... that those matters had occurred, but we knew they had occurred," he told the hearing in Canberra.
A person did not have to be notified after the minister signed a form depriving them of citizenship, the hearing was told.
It was up to the minister to determine to whom the notification was sent, when, and in what way.
"It's not a requirement of the legislation for the person themselves to be notified," Mr Pezzullo said.
The minister had no discretion to reject the department's advice on stripping citizenship.
But he could decide to delay issuing of the notice if there was an intelligence or police operation under way that could be compromised.
Australia has also yet to ask other countries if they will take in those stripped of citizenship.
"Have we put the strict question (to them), `if we were to do X how would you react in terms of Y', the narrow answer to your question is no," Mr Pezzullo said.
Those who lose their citizenship are placed under a non-citizen visa and face being taken into immigration detention, the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security heard.
And if they could not demonstrate their "innocence", they risked removal from the country.
"Striking out the word "innocence", would they have to demonstrate they have a lawful right to remain in Australia? Yes," Mr Pezzullo said.
It would be up to a group of senior public servants to determine if a person had engaged in terrorism, the hearing was told.
Mr Pezzullo described the act of renunciation as the moment someone "donned the uniform of the enemy".
"Your traitorous, treasonous conduct is self-executing at that point," he said.
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