I sent an email to my MP
Recently I was granted with Australian Citizenship, but because my wife and children moved to Australia later than me, they were not eligible by that time. At the present moment they are eligible and meet the 4 years residence requirements, however, my main concern is that DIBP stopped processing all citizenship applications that were submitted after the 20th of April, and, moreover they introduce new requirements like 'having competent English' which means for my wife sitting the IELTS test again and paying extra $300 for the test (additionally to $288 for the application cost).
One interesting thing is that the current citizenship law states that applicants should have:
... possesses a basic knowledge of the English language; and ...
But the DIBP internet site says:
have a competent knowledge of English (applicants under 60 years of age)
http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Citi/pathways-processes/application-options/partner-spouse/eligibility
So, they just go well ahead over the parliament and assume that the new law has been imposed before it happened.
However, the most interesting thing is that DIBP is saying on their internet site that
The changes will not apply to applications made before 20 April 2017. The current rules will apply to applications made before 20 April 2017.
But the law itself has not been approved by the parliament so far, the amendments exist as a bill, you can look here:
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fbills%2Fr5914_first-reps%2F0001%22;rec=0
so my another question is that is it a normal legal practice to make announcements before the law was approved and backdate the laws ?
In my opinion all this looks like barely legal political games and I would like to ask you at least to raise the question before Parliament why applications submitted after the 20th of April are not being processed under the current legislation.
This quite seriously affects my family because now I'm Australian, however, my wife and children are not, and it's not known when their status is going to change, however the application fee has already been paid.
Thank you very much for your support.