millski88

@Prashant Shukla your day sounds great! Aus day would have been good for the 'day off' factor, I don't mind a different day though personally. Can't wait!!

You can take your own for the passports now, as far as i know!

Given that me and the OH are (hopefully) within the last month or two of our wait, it's getting to the 'obsessive checking stage' I'm sure we're all so used to from our immigration journeys... I wonder if i can lighten the mood (and waste some thumb-twiddling time) by posing a question to the group - What are your plans for your citizenship ceremony day? We'll hopefully have the in-laws visiting from the UK over our ceremony, so they'll be joining us. Aside from them we'll almost certainly max-out our invite allowance with close friends and others who have helped us along the way. Ceremonies in our area are late afternoon/early evening, and always during the week, so we'll likely get off work early and have a drink in a pub nearby, then go out for some food as a group after. My UK passport expires in about 4 months, so i'm keen to order both new UK and Aus passports at the same time and have them both brand new (hopefully with a good photo this time!). I think that'd be a really nice touch at the end of this 7 year journey! So what are you all going to get up to?

No the 1300t is the paper alternative. It’s good to review it to get an idea of the information you need to supply though.

https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/ceremony_backlog If you check this Wiki list over on Whirlpool, it looks like the last person reported from your council area as getting on the 26th Jan ceremony was approved on 4th November - so the next ceremony could be your go!

Should usually be 3-4 weeks before. Completely depends on your local council's backlog which ceremony you end up at, but I'd say it's likely 26th Jan is all done now. I know from my local council (Moreland) that i'm not on 26th Jan or their February lists, our approval was late October. I'm just preparing for up to another 3 months wait, that way won't be too disappointed! Is there anything pressing for you time-wise, or just want to have it done? Also remember, the reported average between approval and ceremony is 4-5 months -

Haha nice. Welcome to the citizenship thread!

Oh s**t! Mine was 5th July 2013 I've been in marketing/digital projects and was working in non-profit for a long time, and that's when I got my 457 + subsequent 457 + 186 PR. Since then though I moved to a role at group company which does recruitment & training. I'm actually about to jump ship from here though to move in to my first agency gig, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but with the visa arrangements hadn't been able to previously.

Fingers crossed! We've been lucky with quick turnaround on the initial stages, but now our ceremony wait is looking more average - swings and roundabouts hey. Our stories are incredibly similar, i'm near 7 years too. I think posted letter and email sometimes depending on you council. My other half's parents want to come over for a visit and will try and align it for when we get our ceremony, so i'm quite glad of this contact i've got at Moreland council... don't have to wait for snail mail to get the date confirmed! All the best mate, let us know how you go.

Quick approval! nice one.

Yes!! Awesome. Ah yeah 2 months is really good. We'd been pretty lucky with the speed of the first stages, currently sitting on about 2.5 months after approval, hopefully next month or so we get an invite. Keep us updated!

Only after your ceremony are you officially a citizen, and yeah unfortunately only after you have the certificate from the ceremony can you apply for a passport. Depending on which council area you're in it can be 3-6 months after approval until you get a ceremony.

Nice, so your test is at the city office? Let us know how you go today. We're in Moreland council area yeah, quite a bit of a queue for ceremonies in Moreland. Luckily i got this awesome person who does the event management at Moreland council call me after i put in a website enquiry, she'd been super helpful and told me i could call whenever i needed to check her lists. I can't say it'd be the same for every council though, it's often tricky to get any info in advance of your invite, from what i've heard.

It only says received and then approved, nothing in between as far as i'm aware.

Hey mate!!! Yeah good, me and the mrs both got 100% - I was out of the test centre before my appointment time it was that quick haha. Just keeping track of progress of the waiting list with my local council. We haven't got on Australia day ceremony or the one after that (mid Feb), but i've been told they may have a second February ceremony, so fingers crossed we'll get on that. Good luck tomorrow, you'll smash it! What council area are you in @Parkesy?

Nothing is guaranteed, but i'd prepare for a 2-4 month wait to receive appointment email after submitting your application .

Sorry, misread before my original reply. Strictly speaking, yes you would (i think!). Although the police cert does cover your time until you left, it's still over 6 months old. Is is a big expense to get another one? To be safe and cover all bases, i would if it wasn't too much hassle.

Depends on a few factors. Which DOHA office is your application going to?

Usually post, but i've heard certain councils do email too... depends on the council!

Check every day, as often as you can. You may find 3,4,5 days where you're just not seeing any appointments, then suddenly you'll catch one. It's unpredictable, but the more regularly you check the better your chance. They usually only hang around for a couple of minutes so you have to be quick!

Another thing to note is over Christmas and NY there's probably a close down of the test centres.

You have to check all the time. Cancelled appointments come up regularly but don't stay around usually for longer than a few minutes. If you can, check the calendar at least 4-5 times a day and you'll get one.

Here's the section wording from the online application by the way, screenshot below. It's actually slightly different - it says since your PR was granted. Maybe useful to know at your stage - you can actually preview more-or-less the whole exact application if you refer to the paper form version, here: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/form-listing/forms/1300t.pdf (see page 5 for the paper form version of overseas penal clearance wording)

If you haven't stayed in the countries for more than 90 days after your PR application was submitted, then you do not need to submit them. As a side note - it's also not worth arranging your own Australian police cert for this either, as the DOHA process it themselves electronically when you attend your test/interview. Happy days.

Nice turnaround time on your test! Home straight!