Citizenship Sorted !!

[Anne B]

Well at long last I became an Australian citizen today!!!

 

I have always regretted not getting citizenship when I lived here in 1990's (when you only had to wait 2 years instead of 4), so it's long overdue. For those of you waiting for a ceremony, there is some hope. I got an email last week inviting me to a ceremony at the Dept of Immigration in Currie St (normally ceremonies are done by your local council). Apparently there is such a backlog of people waiting for ceremonies that they have started doing these "no-frills" ones - no guests allowed and no refreshments. I tried to find out from one of the staff today how many of these they would be doing but she didn't give away any information! If you want a more elaborate ceremony then you can wait for your local council one. The Charles Sturt council Australia day one would have been nice at Fort Glanville (by the beach at Semaphore), but I didn't get invited to that. To be honest though I don't like a lot of fuss. I must admit it was a bit lonely just being there on my own (husband and kids are already citizens). At first you lined up in front of tables, showed some ID and got handed your certificate, then you had to fill out an electoral register form, before going into a smallish lecture theatre in the building. The ceremony itself lasted about 15 minutes. Glad the waiting is over and I don't have to worry about visas anymore!

[Diane]

Congratulations! They might not have made much of a fuss at Currie Street, but we're proud to have you on board

[DAVID.CHRISTINE]

Congratulations to you

[beckdownunder]

Congratulations!

[soo_the_panda]

Congratulations! Can I ask what the length of time was between passing your citizenship test and the date of your ceremony? I took my test a couple of months ago and no idea what the wait time is like.

[sduffy]

Congratulations.Sue

[Rabeah]

Congratulations to you and thanks for this really good information

[Anne B]

Congratulations! Can I ask what the length of time was between passing your citizenship test and the date of your ceremony? I took my test a couple of months ago and no idea what the wait time is like.

 

I took the test early December, so it was 5 months wait. I don't know if I got the nod because I had emailed my local council a couple of months ago asking how long the wait would be (their reply was that they had a backlog going back to September 2013!) or because my Visa runs out in a few months time. Hopefully these extra ceremonies will help reduce the waiting time for everyone.

[theboardmans]

Congratulations x