Chandnihorvath

Hello everyone,

Just to let you know that I became a citizen yesterday afternoon and it all went well. The ceremony was lovely, out doors, under a nice shade. There were about 57 recipients and most of them had taken their test in July around the same time as I did. Such a special day; we received some Australian souvenirs such as vegemite, a native plant, a caramel Freddo.

I went home with my certificate, all the goodies, a sweet memory, and a bottle of Bollinger :-)

I'll be applying for my passport on Monday and then fingers crossed all done.

Good luck to everyone here! xx

Hi all,

Received my letter for the ceremony this morning. woohoo!

My updated timeline is:

Applied: 27/04/16

Council: Townsville

Test date: 13/07/16

Approval date: 15/07/16

Ceremony: 24/11/16 (letter received today on the 9/11 dated 4/11)

everyone else who's still waiting hang in there. it's a long and a frustrating road that tests your patience lol but you'all get there in the end. I'll post once my ceremony is over and also once I receive my passport. :-)

Mine took a week only.

 

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Hey Simran,

Congrats :-) Must feel amazing to have it all done and dusted. Did you apply as a priority processing? (Only asking because I will have to go mail the application as well and receive it back in mail).

Ok so finally some decent answer from the Passport office, they are closed from 24-27 Dec and 31-3 Dec/Jan. Anybody travelling around that time should have no problems with their passports and the last day they can issue a passport before Xmas is 23 Dec. Otherwise we'll have to wait until the 28th. Hope this helps everyone thinking of travelling in Dec.

Yeah I totally forgot to ask my Case officer the same question and by the time I was done with the test, the CO was busy with the next applicant, so didn't get a chance to go back and ask.. I did ask the person on the phone though and they said they cannot disclose that information as those numbers are subject to change. So yeah I guess there's no real way of knowing unless your Case officer tells you during the interview...

I'll probably be asking fellow recipients when they were approved, at my ceremony. I'll look like a creepo but at least it will give out a fair idea for any body else in the future who's applying from Townsville. I'll post it here once my ceremony is over.

Has anybody received the invitation letter for their citizenship ceremony this month?

Hi Everyone,

I called DIBP and they told me that they have a tentative date for the ceremony on the 15th september for me , then I called the council and they told me that my name is on the list for the ceremony on the 15th september.

 

But I have not received an invitation letter for the ceremony yet, I am a bit worried because it is less than 3 weeks from the ceremony date.

Can you attend the ceremony if u dont have the invitation letter but your name is on the list?

What to do if I dont receive the letter on time? Can DIBP send the invitation letter by email?

Has anyone received invitation for ceremony on 15th september with dandenong council?

 

Someone please shed some light on this

When I rang DIBP yesterday they said as long as the council can confirm you are on the list you don't need an invite. Just ask them of the time and be there at least 30 mins before. She did say that it happens more than often that the invitation gets misplaced in the mail.

So I rang DIBP today because I am moving houses (same council, Defence just decided to sell this and move us to another street) to update my address and the lady on the phone was super helpful. Now she said that since there are 2 dates for November if my letter gets misplaced to basically just call the council in Oct and check with them. I prodded further about tentative dates and she said the customer service reps are usually hesitant to give out tentative dates especially for busier councils because they can change and they don't want people upset. Basically there could be a date but they won't give it out. She also mentioned that for my council there's only 60 people per ceremony so they can fore plan who's going where (aha!). Apparently they try desperately to stick with the 6 month mark because they undergo PA's every 6 months and they do not want bad KPI's.

Hope this info helps. Not sure if I would rely 100% on it but its the most I have gotten out of a rep. She has been working there for 7 years though. Goodness! I'd lose my sanity.

Oh and with the passport, you can apply the same day. They can check with DIBP but usually the VEVO thing is updated the same day. Apparently its an automated system now. No need to wait 7 days et tout.

I suspect that may be the case! Or perhaps it's just my luck that there isn't a tentative date assigned to my file yet...Anyway if I do have mine in December I'll have just about 18 calendar days to sort the passport out so I'll most likely go down your route of organising everything beforehand and paying the priority processing fee.. Busy December [emoji4]

 

 

 

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I doubt that really. I remember when my PR was due, I rang them 2 days before I received my approval and they said that it might take a couple more months and then I received the approval in 2 days. lol

Yeah its going to be tight Nov/Dec. You're lucky to be near Melbourne. I am in Townsville, I cannot even personally collect the passport to save time unless I fly down to Brisbane for the day.

Crazy Monday

Ceremony 20 sep

Hurray

 

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woohoo!!!!!! Congrats Simran! Fantastic news!!!!! Good luck with everything now

I did and I got the expected response - "nothing scheduled as of now". Makes me wonder how processing times are going to spiral when this happens -

 

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/hundreds-more-jobs-to-go-at-immigration-and-border-force-20160816-gqtokg.html

What the...

Axing more jobs, when things are already bad with the existent staff?

I am glad we all applied this year before the mid-Oct mark. I shudder at the thought of the waiting times next year.

Regarding your date and their standard response, its a bit stupid. I wonder if its actually to do with who you get on the phone and if they are willing to let it out.

That should be the least of your worries (if you choose to worry about something) Nah I'm sure you'll be fine! Did they tell you when you can expect to receive the letter in the mail?

Haha yeah its so close now I need to not worry too much about it. Yes the council still has 24th as their date but they said that DIBP sets the date and they send out the letters, not the council. I should receive the letter about 2-3 weeks before the ceremony. So maybe end of October. Long wait till end of Oct. haha Maybe you should ring DIBP they would have one allocated already I guess.

Hip hip hooray

Ton of congratulations chandni.

How long did u wait after approval?

 

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Hey Simran, thanks for that. I was approved on the 15th of July. So 4 months after approval. A bit longer than other's timeline in Towno but I am not complaining.

Indeed! Yeah will complete 3 months of waiting next Saturday lol. I called my council a couple days ago and they said I'm not on the September list, so yea hopefully it's November for me too otherwise December Will you have enough time to sort out your passport?

 

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Oh my goodness, I wonder what's actually taking so long. I was surprised with Townsville waiting times as well. I was expecting October to be honest but I was surprised with Nov; not that I am complaining. Glad to be all over if that is the actual date.

Yeah should be good with the passport, I will apply the same day and even though I fly out on 25/12 I will still apply as a priority processing. Just to be on the safe side. I am going to get everything ready by end of Sept. and then just get it over and done with it all.

I have a feeling you'd be in the Nov. one especially if you mentioned travelling in Dec. on your application. I think that's what happened to me even though I just updated my travel dates today from 10/12 to 25/12. Now as I mentioned I hope they don't change the ceremony date to Dec. That would definitely be throwing a spanner in the works.

Woohoo finally!!! Awesome stuff [emoji482]

 

 

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Thank you! Its been 10 years in making. Finally can see an end to it all and can visit family stress free in Dec. I hope you get yours soon too, you've been waiting long enough as well.

Hey all!!! Called DIBP and received a tentative date of 22nd Nov So happy!!!!!!!

Hi All,

 

A query from those people whose Council is Brisbane City Council.

 

Who send the Citizenship Ceremony Invitation? Is it Council or DIBP?

 

Moreover is it an email or snail mail thing?

 

Cheers,

[h=2]Attending a ceremony[/h]Brisbane City Council conducts citizenship ceremonies throughout the year. Invitations to the Ceremony are sent to new Citizens by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

This is from the Brisbane City Council website. From what we know, invites are sent out 4-2 weeks in advance. Hope this helps.

On another note, I will be raising a complaint with the Department (once I get my approval letter!). The official actually asked me the following question:

"Being Irish, have you been convicted of any public order offences, drunk and disorderly, or DUI's?"

 

Amazing. I was dumbstruck and immediately pointed it out as being racist. The only reason I didn't ask to see his manager there and then was even because I was yet to sit the test and had earlier had an issue with the paper my passport photo was printed on. I didn't want to be told to come back in a couple of months time so I kept my mouth shut and sat the test.

Appalling! Absolutely appalling. You should raise a complaint. Like I am lost for words.

Hi guys i rang immi on friday.they said no tentative date yet. And it make take 2-3 months to allocate tentative date to a file.

 

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Oh no, that's a shame! Is the Sep one the last one for the year?

Plausible! But if it's true then it would pretty much increase the backlog if a particular LGA has a higher number of candidates from a particular country as they'd have to wait ages for a ceremony then! [emoji16]

But yeah who knows!

 

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That's true! I guess we'll never know. I am finding this worse than waiting for my PR. Maybe because it's so close now.

Something that I came upon while reading the report was that they have to report on top 10 countries' citizens receiving citizenship. I was wondering if what Sarah said is correct or not? That they have to maintain 'country of origin' quota as their KPIs. Would most certainly look weird if the majority of them are British passport holders or American etc.

Oh you should have applied while you were in ACT :arghh:

I know right! It'd be all over by now. :sad:

I called the dept today and they told 3-4 months waiting time in ACT which look like a lot to me. I hope someone from ACT share their experience thanks sarah and roland

Hi there, I used to live in Canberra before Townsville and I can share you one my friend's timeline that she's ok with to share. She sat her test in October, got approved in October and had her ceremony first week in December. ACT is ridiculously quick than anywhere in the country. You're lucky Good luck.

https://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/annual-reports/DIBP-Annual-Report-2014-15-optimised.pdf

Something I came across lurking on DIBP website. They have a report on citizenship allocations/performance/KPIs/organising etc. Might read it as a bed time story.

Hi all,

 

Anyone from Dandenong council who has just got or attended their ceremony? I was approved on the 21/7, gave IMMI a call today but they said no tentative date yet. I just want to get an idea on how long it might take from the approval date to ceremony date for Dandenong council.

from what I have read here, anyone with councils around Melbourne haven't received anything yet. There's at least a couple that are waiting for a tentative date. I am from Townsville and I haven't heard anything yet either and I was approved a week before you. No one really knows how tentative date works.