taggstigress Posted July 29, 2016 Share Posted July 29, 2016 We put in an application for me to sponsor my husband(British) of 39 years so that we could go back to live in Australia to join daughter and grandchildren. We did this in feb 2016. I thought I was Australian- born there of Aussie parents, grandparents- great grandfather was the first Australian born gov general, great great granddaughter of convict. Little did I know that in 1999 when I took out British citizenship, I had revoked my Australian citizenship. ( My children have dual citizenship - taken out at birth so I had assumed that the same thing applied to me). In May 2016 I was told that I could not sponsor my husband as I was no longer an Aussie -despite the fact that I have a current passport and no one had told me. I could apply for resumption of citizenship. It is now almost 3 months later and I am still waiting. Because this can only be done by snailmail and not the internet all evidence and paperwork has had to be sent by mail. Because of the problems of Royal Mail and Aus Post this has taken weeks. - despite me sending it track and trace each time it has taken 3 weeks. The oca has had all evidence for 2 weeks. Has anyone else had a similar experience in getting resumption of citizenship and how long does it take? The dept in Canberra will not respond to my emails. Australia House in London say it is not their dept. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misskat0 Posted July 29, 2016 Share Posted July 29, 2016 I applied last year in about the third week of July, received approval at the start of September. I feel into the same citizenship hole as you - didn't know at the time! Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taggstigress Posted August 28, 2016 Author Share Posted August 28, 2016 I applied last year in about the third week of July, received approval at the start of September. I feel into the same citizenship hole as you - didn't know at the time! Good luck. We are still waiting - really not at all happy. After you received it, was it easy to resume sponsoring your partner? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misskat0 Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 We waited till I had citizenship again before we started our application, so don't know whether it would impact an application in process. Sorry it's taking so long - unfortunately in my experience you won't hear anything till they email you a letter granting citizenship, after which a certificate follows in the post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taggstigress Posted September 24, 2016 Author Share Posted September 24, 2016 Now I have it again so can resume application. I was told you had to resume application for visa by mail ( not internet). How do you repay the fee? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misskat0 Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Sorry, can't help you with that. We only paid after citizenship etc. was all sorted. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 It is interesting that in many ways the system is much tougher on returning Aussies than it is on new migrants. My wife (returning citizen) had to jump through many hoops to register for Medicare and a Drivers Licence (including a witnessed stat dec explaining why she had been away so long). It was also a problem that she had changed her name (got married) while out of the country despite having an Aussie passport with her married name on it. As a PR mine was easy to sort. Hers ended up taking many weeks longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newjez Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 We put in an application for me to sponsor my husband(British) of 39 years so that we could go back to live in Australia to join daughter and grandchildren. We did this in feb 2016. I thought I was Australian- born there of Aussie parents, grandparents- great grandfather was the first Australian born gov general, great great granddaughter of convict. Little did I know that in 1999 when I took out British citizenship, I had revoked my Australian citizenship. ( My children have dual citizenship - taken out at birth so I had assumed that the same thing applied to me). In May 2016 I was told that I could not sponsor my husband as I was no longer an Aussie -despite the fact that I have a current passport and no one had told me. I could apply for resumption of citizenship. It is now almost 3 months later and I am still waiting. Because this can only be done by snailmail and not the internet all evidence and paperwork has had to be sent by mail. Because of the problems of Royal Mail and Aus Post this has taken weeks. - despite me sending it track and trace each time it has taken 3 weeks. The oca has had all evidence for 2 weeks. Has anyone else had a similar experience in getting resumption of citizenship and how long does it take? The dept in Canberra will not respond to my emails. Australia House in London say it is not their dept. I have never heard of this before! There are plenty of dual citizens on here, never heard of anyone having a problem. This is outrageous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta2 Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 Dual citizenship has become tied up with the terrorism issue. As ISIL is (we hope) being defeated, the government is seeking to prevent the return to Australia of foreign fighters in Syria, Iraq etc who are dual citizens. Since relevant legislation passed recently, the government can now rescind their Australian citizenship and thus prevent their return here. Few in Australia have a problem with this. Thus anyone who has (wittingly or unwittingly) renounced their Australian citizenship cannot assume they will be allowed to get it back. At a minimum, all such applications will be closely scrutinised - possibly by the Minister himself- and that obviously will take time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misskat0 Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 We (OP and I) fell into a funny hole dating back to about 2002 when those of us taking on other nationalities inadvertently relinquished Australian citizenship. Nice of them to tell us - not. we only found out by chance or when embarking on some other process, like the OP. Now no longer the case. An irrational administrative blip that some of us had to endure. On the upside, only about $80 to buy it back. :nah: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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