millski88

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Seen someone on another forum get one already. They'd already had a ceremony scheduled in March though, which had been cancelled. The online ceremony was scheduled 2 days after this person received an email, and they were asked to confirm immediately. The email emphasised that this was a trial run at online ceremonies, so they might not yet be in full swing.

https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship Some more info here ^^^ Note the part about the 12 month limit of approval validity being lifted. Looks to be a nod at the fact some approved applicants may now need to wait longer than 12 months for a ceremony. Makes sense... and at least they won't make you take the test again!

It's this statement that makes me believe we'll be waiting until well after COVID-19 restrictions. We didn't have a ceremony scheduled, and the online ceremonies will only drip through applicants compared to the usual ceremonies.

Apologies, i didn't mean to come across a grump! We had to update our records after moving house (and council areas) yesterday, after already waiting 5.5 months from date of approval, and discovered there might be further delays because of this... what a drain. I did read a bit more in to the ceremonies yesterday... does look like they're national. Although, given the volume they're able to cover with the online ceremonies i think there's a good chance we'll be out of COVID-19 restrictions before we get to our ceremony! Ah well, at least it's something for those closer to ceremony, and the queue won't completely stall.

Is there any evidence these online or 1 person ceremonies are happening across the country? I can only see mention of Canberra. With the timeline now at 7 months for 90% from approval to ceremony, not getting an April ceremony from a late-Dec approval isn't hugely surprising, is it? In Victoria especially, even before COVID-19 the ceremony wait seemed to be on that 90% estimate or longer in a lot of cases.

Could depend on the case officer at the interview, but mine said they trigger the checks when you physically attend for interview and test. From my perspective, two factors that would logically effect wait time for approval: 1. Time it takes for the checks to return a result (could be many variables here including your country of original, immigration history etc) 2. Backlog on the desk of the particular case officer who calls your number at your appointment, and also their efficiency. This is complete luck of the draw as to who you sit down to at your appointment, and is not pre-assigned. They have to eyeball the results when they come back before manually approving you on their system, so if one particular CO is behind in their workload it could take time for them to get to you. Many logical variables, to a perhaps antiquated process!

Nah! Oh shit... congrats! Today too. Pretty damn quick turnaround time with a Jan approval! Good stuff. Nah we're still waiting

100% citizenship applications are state-based processing. You have only one designated test centre per application based on the applicants location, so naturally queues are based on each location.

Very quick turnaround! congrats/

Has anyone known of approved applicants waiting for a citizenship ceremony who have moved council areas? we just found out we’re not on the March ceremony in our council area. Really annoying timing but we may have to move house before the April one, and there’s a chance we won’t be in the same council area. i know we’ll need to update DOHA, but I wonder what will happen to our ceremony wait time. After already waiting 4 months it’d be pretty annoying to go back to the start! anyone any insight on this situation?

'finally'? that's a quick turnaround right there!

Google is your friend it's all spelt out in detail on the Department's website.

Didn’t see this at the time but congrats! I’m on 3 months wait after approval, hoping within the next month or so I get my ceremony date (also Moreland).

I’m not 100% sure that’s correct. Just my experience - My partner and I both shifted our test appointments to dates much earlier than originally issued. My partner still received approval immediately (or within about 2 hours of her test appointment), whereas mine took a couple of weeks. Also, while talking to the CO in my interview I offered a recent hard copy police certificate I had in hand. The CO explained to me how they couldn’t accept it, as they triggered the digital check through their system there and then, and actually talked me through the fact that they were doing it whilst I was sat across the desk from them. Might just have been my experience, but it makes sense to me that they’d progress with a police check once the interview step was cleared.

Got a letter from the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, David Coleman, but not local MP no.

People might just not check Immi Account, so they wouldn't know. When you get an email directly giving you the instructions and the appointment time, there's little need for most to go and check Immi Account. In fact, after submitting an application there's really little need to check it at all if you think about it. Here you go: 1. Yes, copies of email correspondence appear in Immi Account under Messages. I have several appointment letters as it generates a new one each time you reschedule. 2. There is a Citizenship appointments tab which then gets populated with your appointment time.

From what i've heard across several forums, it seems to differ council to council. Could be email, could be post, could be both.

I was just referring to being able to take your own photo for a passport application (once you're a citizen), rather than having to go and get an 'official' passport photo printed, but it turns out you can't here in Aus.

Yeah it's about $16 with AusPost. Better even that $8 would be the ability to take and upload yourself, like the UK passport office now allows: https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/photo/how-to-take-a-photo

I was thinking you could actually take your own photo and upload it, as you can in the UK now, but i just checked and you can't here - needs to be printed. Definitely would rather a photo booth than using an AusPost shop! Officeworks also do them a bit cheaper than AusPost i think.

Haha. Awesome. You might get given one at your ceremony??

Just on second reading, there is no issue here... 11/09/2019 to 13/12/2019 = 94 calendar days With that in mind, read the following taken from the Home Affairs page: To meet the three months' specified work requirement you must complete the same number of normal work days or shifts as a full-time employee in that role and industry would normally work in a three month (88 calendar day) period. You can do this in a variety of ways, for example: working five days a week for a continuous period of three calendar months, including on a piecework rate agreement; and their example: Karsten works full-time for a construction company in rural Victoria as a builder from 1 December to 26 February, a total of 88 calendar days. Karsten works five days a week (Monday to Friday) for this whole period of time and is paid the correct legal wage. Karsten has met the three month specified work requirement.

It's been a while since I did mine, but the attitude at that time (in my experience) was generally to count the total days from when you arrived to when you left a specific employer. Of course this could depend on the employer. It was the employer though that actually had to sign off your start and end dates and 'actual number of days worked', and it was very unlikely that you'd be penalised for finishing a bit early, or for public holidays. I just did a quick google, and the new DOHA page for this visa spells it out really clearly, have you read this? - https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/work-holiday-417/specified-work The 'How to count specified work' section. This kind of echos the attitudes of employers I experienced, but spelled out a bit clearer. "3 months" is emphasised over 88 days, and at a basic level this is quoted as equating to "working five days a week for a continuous period of three calendar months, including on a piecework rate agreement;" Does this page help at all?

How long since your test? I thought that too, i got that dread of a 'never ending black hole' somewhere with my app in it, especially after my OH's got approved the same day as her test. Low and behold though, within about 10 working days it switched to approved. Hang in there!