Citizenship Questions

coldpaw

Hello all,

Having just received PR, my thoughts are inevitably turning to getting my hands on an Aussie Passport. It's still 9 months away but I wanted to find out a bit more info from anyone on here who has been trough the process:

-For anyone who has gone through the process, how long has it taken from application to passport in your claw?

-From what I have read in a couple of places it seems that once your application is accepted you current visa (PR in my case) will expire. I have a series of family wedding next year to negotiate ...

-Does anyone have experience with urgent ceremony requests being granted; and

-What's the quickest Council in Sydney?

Any thoughts, comments, trolling greatly appreciated,

Barry

mandrake04

Once you qualify for citizenship you can apply online, takes about an hour and I received notification for the test and interview in post within 5 days of applying.

Went along to the interview bring some utility bills and your passport , test took me 2 min 13 secs to get 20/20.

they will send you a letter about 2 weeks later with notification of your ceremony, my letter was posted early October and my ceremony was not until 25th Jan. My council usually run ceremony every two months but near the end of the year they carry them over to the big Australia Day (or in my case night before) ceremony.

You can't get a passport until after the ceremony.

If you are stuck for time I have heard of the councils are able to swear you in with a private ceremony in the council chambers.

Out of all the immigration processes the Citizenship is the easiest.

Passport took about 10 days after I applied for it.

d.pop

Hi Coldpaw, not sure about the citizenship stuff, am doing it around Oct myself too but as far as the PR goes, that never expires hence the term permanent resident.
What does expire is the visa label in your passport. if you wish to leave Aus after that expires it can be difficult if not impossible to come back. what you need to do is get an RRV (residents return visa) valid for 4-5 years put in BEFORE you leave Australia, you can google this, pretty straight forward but expensive. think it can be done by post or in person in an immigration office. the internet has all the answers in FAQ.
good luck.
Side note...a friend after 10 years in Oz as a PR left to go home (5 years after visa expired), if the departure immigration official at airport hadn't told her about needing the RRV she would have been denied re-entry despite having a husband waiting for her and 3 kids born in Oz. in the end she had to go to London and get the RRV before flying back to Oz.

hussey

coldpaw wrote: »

Hello all,


-For anyone who has gone through the process, how long has it taken from application to passport in your claw?

Yes, mine took about 5months start to finish (main issue was waiting on ceremony(4months for me, 2011 marrickville council)

-From what I have read in a couple of places it seems that once your application is accepted you current visa (PR in my case) will expire. I have a series of family wedding next year to negotiate ...

Once you do the exam you get a letter saying you are accepted and you will be given a ceremony, and you cannot leave the country. edit, once you do the ceremony you cannot leave, got it mixed up.

-Does anyone have experience with urgent ceremony requests being granted; and

Not me, but I know others who requested to get theirs quick (weddings was their issue too) and got it within 3weeks

-What's the quickest Council in Sydney?

You do not have a choice in this, the council is where you live. Although the girl above lived in randwick and got an 'express' ceremony (no speaking just a handshake, pledge & cert) in the city as they were backlogged apparently.
Once you have your form, you can get your passport - took 10days and can be tracked online. Very easy process

jank

The process is pretty straight forward and you can do it online. Waiting times depends on your suburb that you live in. I applied for mine in Feb and did the ceremony on St Patrick's day. Passport is then yours in about two weeks once you apply for it in the Post office.

universe777

Got my citizenship about 2 weeks ago. It was exactly 4 months from application to ceremony. It would have been quicker if not for the time waiting on a ceremony, they are overwhelmed with applications now and had to put on an extra ceremony. My local council is Melbourne city council.
You have to wait 10 days after the ceremony to apply for a passport.

Your visa is valid up until you do the ceremony and make the pledge. The 10 days afterwards is when they tie it all up on their end, cancel your visa etc but once you make the pledge you are a citizen and receive a certificate there and then to prove it.

mandrake04

d.pop wrote: »

Hi Coldpaw, not sure about the citizenship stuff, am doing it around Oct myself too but as far as the PR goes, that never expires hence the term permanent resident.
What does expire is the visa label in your passport. if you wish to leave Aus after that expires it can be difficult if not impossible to come back.

PR visa is a 5 year visa that allows you to live in Australia Permently as long as you never leave, 1000's of people lose their PR every year as to get an RRV you need to spend at least 2 years in the last 5 in Australia.

It's the complete visa that expires not just the label (Visas are Labeless these days) If PR is expired and you have not/can't get an RRV you have to apply again from scratch... happens to 1000s of people every year.

statina

mandrake04 wrote: »

PR visa is a 5 year visa that allows you to live in Australia Permently as long as you never leave, 1000's of people lose their PR every year as to get an RRV you need to spend at least 2 years in the last 5 in Australia.

It's the complete visa that expires not just the label (Visas are Labeless these days) If PR is expired and you have not/can't get an RRV you have to apply again from scratch... happens to 1000s of people every year.

Mandrake, this is probley a stupid question but is that 2 years living on the permanent residency visa to get the RRV? Not eligible for citizenship til end of April but have to go home the end of November this year as my career break is up. Does that mean I lose the permanent residency visa because I don't have it two years, I have it over a year.

It's unlikely I'll want to come back but I always thought I had the choice! If I do want to come back for whatever reason, do I have to start from scratch or do I have any options? I can't stay to to get the citizenship until April, otherwise I'd have to resign from my job at home which I don't want to do.

Pirated

Interesting thread as I'm considering emigrating to the great land of Oz!

statina

Pirated wrote: »

Interesting thread as I'm considering emigrating to the great land of Oz!

Be prepared for endless discussions about visas!

digiman

I've been on a 457 since January 2012 and will be applying for PR once I get the result of my skills assessment in about 4-5 weeks. Can I apply for citizenship in January 2016 provided I have been able to get PR?

6ix

Provided you've got your PR by January 2015, yes.... presuming you weren't out of Australia too much:

To satisfy the residence requirements you must have:

4 years lawful residence in Australia. This period must include 12 months as a permanent resident immediately before making an application for Australian citizenship

and

absences from Australia of no more than 12 months in total in the 4 years prior to application, including not more than 90 days in the 12 months immediately prior to application.

Residence Calculator here if you did need to check:
https://www.ecom.immi.gov.au/citz/startIntervalCalc.do

mandrake04

statina wrote: »

Mandrake, this is probley a stupid question but is that 2 years living on the permanent residency visa to get the RRV? Not eligible for citizenship til end of April but have to go home the end of November this year as my career break is up. Does that mean I lose the permanent residency visa because I don't have it two years, I have it over a year.

It's unlikely I'll want to come back but I always thought I had the choice! If I do want to come back for whatever reason, do I have to start from scratch or do I have any options? I can't stay to to get the citizenship until April, otherwise I'd have to resign from my job at home which I don't want to do.

I assume you got your PR April 2013, your visa expires April 2018. If you haven't lived in Australia for at least 2 years between April 2013 -April 2018 then you are not eligible for a RRV.

If you made it back to Australia in March 2018 you would still be able to enter and live in Australia Permently but you still wouldn't be able to get a RRV until November 2019 so you couldn't even be able to leave the country on a holiday or you wouldn't get back in again.

You can get an emercency 3 month RRV in cases where you need to leave for a death in family or something like but it only lasts 3 months.

If you are not planning on coming back before 2018 you would probably lose your PR and have to start from scratch.

PR is far from Permanent.

(They sometimes make rare exceptions in the cases where you have substantial ties to the country such as own substantial property and having substantial family connections living in the country which they might grant an RRV.)

coldpaw

Thanks for all very helpful comments everyone. I have heard that the RRV is far from perfect, so I want that passport!

From what i've read it seems that 4-5 months is a sensible amount of time to budget for the entire process.

One last question and I appreciate no one may have an answer, but with the emergency requests if you know the date of your leaving the country will fall during the application process would that be problem? For example If I apply on May 1st but the sister is getting married July 14- if I apply for an emergency ceremony can they refuse?

Cheers everyone

Slideways

Bumping this thread as I wish to apply for my citizenship at the end of this month.

Do I have to wait until the 4 year anniv of my arrival before I can apply?

fermmark

Slideways wrote: »

Bumping this thread as I wish to apply for my citizenship at the end of this month.

Do I have to wait until the 4 year anniv of my arrival before I can apply?

Yes,it can't be lodged before your here 4 years. You can gather all information etc and get all sorted before the date but don't lodge.
I had sent all my documents in and they received it a day before my 4 years and all was returned saying i didn't meet the residency requirements- but I did the following day.....