Applying for citizenship from outside of Australia

Donedeal990 · 15-02-2015 10:17am #1

Hi, I am looking for advise from anyone onhere who has done something similar?

I want to apply for Austalian citizenship. I am close to completing four years here, I will soon have spent 3 years and 9 months here. I was planning on leaveing after the 3 yrs and 9 months and when the 4 years from entry elapses, I will apply for citizenship from outside of Australia.

My question is and it not clear from DIAC, can I leave the county go abroad and lodge the application from the nearest consulate/ embassy and then do the citizenship test in the consulate and embassy? I rang DIAC but I couldn't get a proper conclusive answer.

Has anyone on here successful done this?

It says something on the form that you must apply from within Australia and then you can't leave until you get your approavl unless in exceptional circumstances.

From what I understand the citizenship ceremony itself has to be done inside Australia and you have 12 months to do it from notification of approval. The other curveball is that once you attend the ceremony and become a citizen you cannot leave Australia until you get an Australian passport which I believe is to 3 days if you pay an express fee.

Any opinons would be advice appreciated.

d.pop · 15-02-2015 12:22pm

Wow, that's a tricky one!

I'm no real use to you other than being able to confirm the stuff you mentioned re the ceremony, I'm currently going through it now.
Applied on line, uploaded all documents. During application you have to specify your local council for the ceremony.
5 days later got invited to an interview, you have to attend in person and present all your original documents and have a photograph taken.
By the way They do police clearance on you in aus but you have to provide overseas clearance.
Note: once you start online application you only have, I think, 14 days to upload everything so make sure you have everything ready to go in jpg and less than 500kb.

After the interview you go to another room and take computerised test.
Assuming you pass, minimum 15 out of 20, you leave and wait for a decision from DIAC.

I got confirmation of acceptance after 14 days. So around. 3 weeks from upload to acceptance (in Perth).
Canberra now send your "diploma" to the council you specified (around 5 weeks wait) and you wait for council to call you for conferral.
Only after the conferral and oath is sworn are you a citizen.
You need to do the ceremony within 12 months or you may need to start process all over again.
It is then that your visa is cancelled and you cannot leave or enter oz without an Aussie passport.

Sorry I have no more advice other than suggest you go in to a Diac office and speak to somebody, they are very good and helpful and have specialists that just deal with citizenship enquiries.

Just a word of caution, I'd say they will probably ask you why the rush to leave and if you insist on leaving why not wait until you come back to aus to apply etc. I think being overseas might raise eyebrows and cause you a problem.

Would not be surprised if they tell you to get a RRV and apply when more convenient for you.
Hopefully not!

Best of luck, please let us know how you get on, quite a complicated one...!

ArseBurger · 16-02-2015 1:17am

d.pop wrote: »

Wow, that's a tricky one!

Not really.

For people applying for citizenship without a birth path:

If you have permanent residency and have been resident under a valid visa for a total of four years, of which you need to have at least one year since you were given PR, you can apply for citizenship. Within the last year prior to application you cannot have been outside of Australia for more than ninety days (consecutive or not). Once you pass your test and have your application approved you need to attend a citizenship ceremony. This can be done outside of Australia but only in exceptional circumstances.
Once you have completed your ceremony and pledged allegiance to the Commonwealth you become a citizen. As a citizen you cannot enter or leave Australia on anything other than an Australian passport.

There are other paths for people who have a right to citizenship by birth.

statina · 16-02-2015 7:27am

Rang DIAC last week about this cos I am eligible to go for citizenship but will be going home in the next few months.

You can apply online or through a paper application from Ireland but you have to submit a reason why you are out of the country and if you intend to go back to Australia. If DIAC accept your reasons, then the test is done online and the ceremony is done in the London embassy. They said it takes 9-12 months.

If you do submit the application whilst in Australia, you need to be present in Australia for the whole process, otherwise itl be nil void

d.pop · 16-02-2015 11:16am

ArseBurger wrote: »

Not really.

For people applying for citizenship without a birth path:

If you have permanent residency and have been resident under a valid visa for a total of four years, of which you need to have at least one year since you were given PR, you can apply for citizenship. Within the last year prior to application you cannot have been outside of Australia for more than ninety days (consecutive or not). Once you pass your test and have your application approved you need to attend a citizenship ceremony. This can be done outside of Australia but only in exceptional circumstances.
Once you have completed your ceremony and pledged allegiance to the Commonwealth you become a citizen. As a citizen you cannot enter or leave Australia on anything other than an Australian passport.

There are other paths for people who have a right to citizenship by birth.

The "tricky one" reference was with respect to the overseas bit
I know the application process itself is not tricky, I've just done it !
Doing it onshore is very straightforward.

Another poster has since posted some useful info about doing it from overseas that seems to confirm my suspicion that one needs to convince DIAC of ones intentions.....

With a cabinet minister today calling for people with dual citizenship to have to give up one passport in a bid to fight terrorism I suspect there will be a renewed focus on the citizenship process shortly.

Anybody thinking about going for citizenship might want to do it sooner rather than later, keep the options open...!

jank · 18-02-2015 1:32am

Why not just stay in Australia the extra few months and do it all hassle free? Reading online, one can enter difficulty if they apply for their citizenship, get approval but then have to wait until the ceremony. At this stage of the process they are in a bind as they are technically not under PR anymore and technically not citizens yet as they have not done the ceremony. One has to have a very good reason to prove they need to go abroad like a death in the family or something like that. They wont accept some spurious reason and will require proof of said reason too like a death notice/certificate.

Tbh, for something so meaningful, permanent one should just buck up and stay in the country and do the ceremony there unless of course there is an actual exceptional circumstance. Within luck you can have it done in a few months. It took me about 6-8 weeks from application to ceremony. I really cant see why someone with 3 months to go to make the 4 year mark has to go off and try and complicate things for themselves and DIAC. 12-18 weeks is nothing given the lifetime of the passport you get (never mind the fact that your kids get it too).

Would be interested in hearing why the OP is going through this needless process.

Also, if you plan to leave after the 3 years and 9 months after you have been a resident then you will fail the basic 4 year requirement. You must be a legal resident for 4 years in Australia, this includes a WHV, 457 and PR. Does not include the fact you may have been on holiday visa before hand. This part is entirely unclear by the OP
As also noted you cannot be out of the country more than 90 days for the 12 months prior to the application. Again you may fail this criteria.

If they do not accept your exceptional circumstances then you will be back to square one in many ways as you will have to move back to oz and live there for 12 months and then apply again. Tbh i think its a stupid risk and madness, by trying to pull this off, again unless you have exceptional circumstances .i.e. death of a parent, parent is disabled after a stroke. They will ask for proof, so if you have flaked off to get a job somewhere else expect a resounding no.

Donedeal990 · 18-02-2015 12:22pm

My Reasoning is that jobs market in my industry for the next year is not looking good at all!

Exceptional job offer elsewhere in an other country, don't want to miss the opportunity by waiting here another 5 to 6 months.

jank · 24-02-2015 1:10am

If that is the case then I think its unlikely you will be offered the chance to get your Aussie passport unfortunately. You may well end up falling between two stools here. Could the job not wait a few months?

ArseBurger · 24-02-2015 3:58am

What it basically boils down to is, what's more important to you? Australian citizenship or the job overseas? To answer that question you may need to ask yourself why you want citizenship.

Personally I got citizenship because I am settling in Australia and call it my home.

Applying for citizenship from outside of Australia

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