EF Core with xunit, Function behaviour different than in controller

Question

I have set up a little test with xunit to test if a certain row in my test database is not there when I query for it. Here is the test:

        [Fact]
        public async Task GetApplication_ResultEmpty()
        {

            Application application = await _applicationFunctions.GetApplicationByIdAsync(1010);
            Console.WriteLine("Application:" + application);
            Console.WriteLine("ApplicationID: " + application.Id);

            Assert.Null(application);
        }

The GetApplicationById function returns null if it doesnt find anything in the database. Here is a short version of it:

        public async Task<Application> GetApplicationByIdAsync(int id)
        {
            using(var dbContext = _dbContextFactory.CreateDbContext())
            {
                List<Application> ApplicationList = await dbContext.Applications.FromSqlRaw("Exec dbo.GetApplication {0}", id).ToListAsync();
                if (ApplicationList.Any())
                {

                    //call some stored procedures...
                    return Application;
                }
            }
            return null;
        }

I return null if the result is empty. When I debug the Object of type Application inside my controller is set to null correctly. In my test the Assert.Null fails and says that the actual value is this:

Actual:   
Application 
{ 
Applicants = null, 
ApplicationComments = null, 
ApplicationNumber = null, 
ApplicationRelStates = null, 
ApplicationUuid = null, ... 
}

What am I doing wrong here? Sepcifically I want to test if the Object itself is null.