WRooney

1. Date applied. 04/05//15

2. City/council. Port Macquarie, Hastings council

3 Online/ paper. Online

4 citizenship test 22/05/15

5 citizenship approval 28/05/2015

6. Citizenship ceremony. 22/06/15

Citizen in 7 weeks from the application.. really impressive. Was it "urgent"?

Thanks Quinkla. Do I have to reply to the invitation? or it's just a notice

I basically have the clients already.. how much would be a reasonable fee an agency should charge me to deal with the paperwork and legislations?

I am subdividing some land and currently trying to generate some pre-sales. I was considering looking for Chinese buyers, but was also wondering what are the rules and limitations in regards to this. Things like: do Chinese have the right to buy a house in Australia even if they are not resident? do they have to pay extra fees? could they get permanent residency once they buy a house? Any information on this matter would be appreciated.

Thank you all for the great help. I just have one thing unclear at this stage: how can they notify me while I am in the UK? Would they be happy to contact me via email or I have to arrange for somebody to check my mail in Australia? I am wondering what would happen if they send me the invitation via regular mail and I don't attend the ceremony without notifying them.

I thought my RSMS would have automatically expired from the moment I passed the test. Anyway here is where I read that one can't travel while a decision is being made: https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Citi/Appl/How-to-apply/Application-process-for-Australian-citizenship#. At Step 9 (receiving notification of the dept decision after the test) they say in bold: you must be in the country at the time a decision is made. You may need to defer your travel plans or, if your travel is urgent contact the department for advice. Anyway shouldn't take long from the test to the notification, shouldn't it?

You can travel once your citizenship has been approved ( normally within a couple of weeks of the test) and before the ceremony, provided you have a valid visa to return to Australia. You do not have to stay in Australia for the wait, but you need to be in Australia for the test, decision and ceremony. Unless you are applying from overseas as a special case.

I am on a RSMS which expires in 2018 so I could return. What you say is very interesting, I thought I was not allowed to travel outside of Australia while waiting for the ceremony. Should I tell the Department about me leaving Australia after I pass the test?

The only thing is I would need to arrange for someone to read my correspondance to see when they invite me to the ceremony; I hope their invitation letter goes straight to the letterbox and doesn't need the recipient to go to the post office and sign..

Very unlikely unless you have a very good reason - given you can travel on your British passport until the ceremony a need to travel overseas is not deemed to be a good reason.

 

What is the urgency? Are you wanting to return to the UK permanently?

 

If for example you have a job offer which requires you to be a citizen, e.g. armed forces or federal government that could be deemed a good reason and I have known people get it more quickly so they didn't have to pay international student fees.

 

If you would need a RRV and do need to travel to the UK for a good reason i.e terminally ill parent or something like that then possibly it is worth requesting - some shires do offer private ceremonies.

 

I do think you can only get it in your own shire as others have said but someone had suggested on here you could nominate another one at the time of application.

A number of reason, one of which is looking after a relative of old age who is sick. Not sure whether that would represent enough grounds for me to ask for them to speed things up, and which documentation they would ask me as a proof.

Anyway, do I need to sit the test also in the shire of residency, or they would call me to do it in Northbridge (which I would prefere as it would be much faster)? Also, what happens if I change residency after I pass the test? would I be able to sit the test in the new shire of residency?

I was told by my council that they have no say in who to invite to which ceremony - they develop a schedule of ceremonies based on historic demand levels and then wait for DIBP to tell them who to invite. In Victoria when I was looking for ceremonies - a year ago - you could only go to your home local authority unless you had an urgent and compelling reason to be dealt with sooner - and wanting to spend extended periods of time overseas would not be seen as a good reason. My waiting time for a ceremony was 9 months.

9 months is a really long time to wait without being able to leave the country. Did you knew it would have taken 9 months, or you just waited patiently until you received the invitation 6 weeks prior to the ceremony? Was it a small town?

Oh crap.. at the moment I live in a rural town of WA, there will be a long wait. Would be great if there was any possibility to ask the DIABP a special request in order to speed things up.

Hmm I see. Like, I ring the different shires and ask when they have the next ceremony scheduled for?

Thank you very much Lady Rainicorn (I love Adventure Time too ha), that was very informative. Hmm 4 months between the test and the actual ceremony seems quite a long time to wait. Can I just tell them I would do the ceremony anywhere in WA as soon as there is one spot available?

I plan to apply for Citizenship in the first half of February. I have certain things to sort out back in the UK though, and any period of time I could spend there would be important. I couldn't figure out at which stages of the Citizenship process one is allowed to leave Australia, and how long for. Basically I understand that after the application has been made, the steps that follows are the communication regarding where and when to sit the test, then the test, finally the citizenship ceremony, and after that the passport (which I would want). All of this should take 4-6 months. I am wondering where, across these steps, I would be allowed to temporarily leave Australia.