A young Sydney father charged with terror offences for allegedly travelling to a war zone in the Middle East has delayed his bail application until the new year.

Belal Betka, 25, was arrested on Tuesday morning at Mount Lewis, in Sydney’s southwest, where he lives with his mother.

He has been charged with incursion into foreign countries with the intention of engaging in hostile activities and entering and remaining in a declared area. He is the first Australian-based person to be charged with the incursion offence, according to police, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Police allege he travelled to the Raqqa province of Syria between March and July 2015. At the time, the region had been declared by the federal government as a province where a listed terror organisation was engaging in hostile activity.

Betka was to appear via video link before magistrate Theo Tsavdaridis at Parramatta local court on Thursday for a bail application. However, his lawyer indicated the application would not go ahead and instead sought a date for the brief of evidence to be served.

At his first court appearance at Bankstown local court on Wednesday, it was revealed Betka’s legal team was waiting for a response from a government agency following “a request for information that may assist our case”.

Tsavdaridis adjourned the matter until 13 February and ordered the brief be handed to the defence team by 1 February.

Betka is further accused of dealing in the proceeds of crime, relating to property worth over $1m, in October.

The government’s declaration relating to Raqqa was lifted last month.