the_new_citizen

Any May 18 applicant got the test invite?

29 minutes ago, Keshev said:

Congratulations bro which is your council and country of origin 

yes that would be interesting info

2 minutes ago, Chris N Lora said:

Don't fret yet, we waited 12 months ... we applied in Dec 2017, got the test Dec 18 citizenship Jan 19 .. hence the guidelines are just that ... fingers crossed you get it soon .. the next lot of citizenship ceremonies I believe are April/May ... We applied for PR back in 2008 wife was a hairdresser ...took us 3 years to get the PR it cost us $2800 at the time we did it ourselves .. no MA used ... we have been very lucky I feel in getting citizenship as fast as we did .. and Yup, we are migrant in the Sydney area.  stop being optimist with the 100GBS  

I applied by myself and took me 17 months to get PR with cost of $3000

some examples   of citizenship application timeline

1st case

Submitted: 22-Oct-2017
Test invite: waiting
Council: Sydney

16 months already. The invite will definitely come when I'm still alive~~~

2nd case

18.5 months since lodgement... still no interview invitation.. only automated checks appeared and no word from a case officer yet

3rd case

Myself and kids timeline
Applied 24 April 2018
Acknowledged same day
Test invitation recvd: 11 Feb 2019
Test date: 15 May '19 (planning to reschedule to an earlier date)

Spouse
Applied 25 April 2018
Acknowledged same day
Test invitation recvd: waiting
Test date: waiting

1 minute ago, Ken said:

There's an election coming. What you really need right now is someone to publish a report showing that new citizens overwhelmingly vote for the Coalition. That would get the government to get their finger out. Unfortunately I suspect the government thinks most new citizens are going to vote Labor which is why they've been on this go slow.

Previously I was thinking to vote for coalition. But now I'll vote labor party. After all we are labor's in our jobs  

1 minute ago, Chris N Lora said:

Government are to blame, they are grossly incompetent, I agree in relation to the security checks of refugees, however it is hard when no documents are present and they can claim to not be who they are etc ... I am all for the DNA and prints of refuges to be taken upon arrival .... Imagine if everyone had DNA and prints taken crime would reduce overnight etc ....

As mentioned, 22 months is excessive, however statistically they are done quicker generally,  and if the 22 month time scale has been met then people need to contact the immigration minister, he cannot try and lobby for change unless he is aware fully. 

 

You make very valid points and generally I agree, alas the government need to be held accountable for the actions they take in causing delays, I think sometimes they dont want immigration the way they always contradict immigration policy.

 

They want us all to pay taxes but no benefits.... wonderful utopia for governments lol. 

You mind me asking on how long you have been waiting?  

I have been waiting for more than 10 months. One of my friend waiting for more than an year now. He called and got the generic reply. Migrants have to pay a good amount to get PR, then if they marry with some overseas partner they need to pay additional approx $8,000.  Funny thing is that almost 40/50% skilled migrants goes to Sydney and Sydney has only 1 testing centre  and one in parramatta (Where almost 80-90%) are migrants. It like having a 100Gbs speed available but bandwidth is only 1K  

1 hour ago, Chris N Lora said:

Firstly, these people who arrive on boats, we all know refugee status is  buzz word with all countries, However,you cannot blame them for the DIAC process.  

Again, being skilled or a refugee, has absolutely nothing to do with being a citizen ... my daughter is neither skilled or a refugee (school aged) and she is a citizen now.. I think blaming the refugees is harsh. 

Firstly, I do not accept 22 months is justifiable to process applications for citizenship.

However, there are mitigating circumstances that DIAC should be defended for.  

lets take two  family applications. 

Family Smith and family Jones. 

Family Jones have lived in Australia for 5 years, they arrived and have never been out of the country.  they have no criminal records, all papers are in order etc etc, when DIAC process this family, they see it is a straight forwards application. (no oversea clearances etc).

Family Smith have also lived in Australia for 5 years, however they spent more then 90 days out of the country, therefore, they need to supply overseas record checks etc ... DIAC have to wait for them to be uploaded, family smith also have delayed in getting the further information etc.

Also,  as mentioned Qualification, do you qualify for citizenship .. not if you are a Nurse or Pilot etc.  

 

Low Risk / High Risk countries etc ... there are always mitigating circumstance to the delays ... justifiable or not.

 

Furthermore, once applications are approved, councils differ, take Parramatta, I believe had over 1600 citizens take the oath on Australia day, where as there are towns around the country whom may have 10 or 20 .... 

 

When the logistics are considered it is a massive task to coordinate/implement the process...  

I think, rather then blame DIAC maybe blame the Federal government for changes to the system that caused the delay trying to put the bill through etc... maybe lodge a formal complain to the Federal Government.  

 

 

 

 

Hi Chris: its all arguments, from my side take it lightly  . I am surely not against anyone. Everyone who came to Australia(one way or other) has the same right to live here peacefully.

55 minutes ago, ArsalanAhmad said:

the government own audit report says otherwise. However, I agree with most of your points in the later comment

well, that is the point. They have put people in a long painful waiting queue and now demand that people should not argue how they process. at least tell them a clear cut status over the phone, they just provide a general answer. At least tell the applicant at what stage his/her application is. Someone applied in Jan 2018 and not getting a test call and someone applied in March 2018 and getting the test call will make people suffer mentally.

1 hour ago, ArsalanAhmad said:

Does it define inactivity. The Audit also finds out there are 20% applications which are complex in nature? How you infer that the applicants which came through PR are affected by those who arrived on boats? 

I agree with your point but if you read some of the news, processing delays were blamed to the people who came to Australia on boat. Its not me who is having this opinion, it is the government official point of view on sbs website. Please see the below link (21 August 2018). Stop blaming me that I am blaming people came on boat ( I wish them best of the life in Australia). I am not against them, they are human like us.

https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/punjabi/en/article/2018/08/21/australian-citizenship-more-staff-be-deployed-process-backlog

“Second point is that we did overall increase the identity checks and security checks about 12 months ago.

“And thirdly, we are dealing with that big backlog of the boat arrivals from three or four years ago, which are now coming through for citizenship,” he said.

1 hour ago, Chris N Lora said:

Firstly, these people who arrive on boats, we all know refugee status is  buzz word with all countries, However,you cannot blame them for the DIAC process.  

Again, being skilled or a refugee, has absolutely nothing to do with being a citizen ... my daughter is neither skilled or a refugee (school aged) and she is a citizen now.. I think blaming the refugees is harsh. 

Firstly, I do not accept 22 months is justifiable to process applications for citizenship.

However, there are mitigating circumstances that DIAC should be defended for.  

lets take two  family applications. 

Family Smith and family Jones. 

Family Jones have lived in Australia for 5 years, they arrived and have never been out of the country.  they have no criminal records, all papers are in order etc etc, when DIAC process this family, they see it is a straight forwards application. (no oversea clearances etc).

Family Smith have also lived in Australia for 5 years, however they spent more then 90 days out of the country, therefore, they need to supply overseas record checks etc ... DIAC have to wait for them to be uploaded, family smith also have delayed in getting the further information etc.

Also,  as mentioned Qualification, do you qualify for citizenship .. not if you are a Nurse or Pilot etc.  

 

Low Risk / High Risk countries etc ... there are always mitigating circumstance to the delays ... justifiable or not.

 

Furthermore, once applications are approved, councils differ, take Parramatta, I believe had over 1600 citizens take the oath on Australia day, where as there are towns around the country whom may have 10 or 20 .... 

 

When the logistics are considered it is a massive task to coordinate/implement the process...  

I think, rather then blame DIAC maybe blame the Federal government for changes to the system that caused the delay trying to put the bill through etc... maybe lodge a formal complain to the Federal Government.  

 

 

 

 

First of all I am not blaming people coming on boats and applying for citizenship. My point is that both of them should be processed differently, and why not processed in two queues for managing the load efficiently ?

secondly how can I blame federal gov? alright they stopped the processing for 6 months but what happened afterwards? Have you read the audit report?

Also you know why detailed security checks are included in citizenship. A person who came on skilled immigration was granted PR after a detailed security check and then he lived in Australia for 5 years without any criminal history and never been out of Australia for more than 90 days. How can that person in circumstances equals to a person who came on boat, granted PR, have no documentation or previous security check issue. How can a complex application equates to a straight forward application? Why both are not going into two streams?  (No blame to people who came on boat, I wish them very best of life in Australia)

For example you pay your strata fee on time for an apartment but not the owner of next apartment to you, will you wait for strata to fix the building problem after dealing with the owner next to your apartment?

Lastly I am not blaming DIAC or government, I am just pointing out that why not an efficient  model of processing can be in place? Why it is so difficult to implement an SOP for complex and simple application? and why not both be processed in different queues? Principally they are different in nature.

25 minutes ago, Chris N Lora said:

I do not see how, the link is being made, paying taxes and being a boat arrival.... Citizenship is based on merit and qualification rather than on whom pays more taxes... As said previously, DIAC are progressing and the majority are done prior to the time line  published.

OK I accept your point. But tell me how both types of applications will be efficiently process and how can this process become faster? 

10 minutes ago, Chris N Lora said:

I do not see how, the link is being made, paying taxes and being a boat arrival.... Citizenship is based on merit and qualification rather than on whom pays more taxes... As said previously, DIAC are progressing and the majority are done prior to the time line  published.

The link is that the people who arrived in boats are with incomplete documentation. There is no specific team which is dedicated for those complex applications. Because of that the people who came on skilled migration visa are suffering a daring delay. IF anyone came on genuine visa and his/her documentation is complete and was also gone through extreme background security checks when obtaining skilled visa should be shown some respect. Why not two different streams? complex applications (boat arrivals / refugees) should be processed in a different queue rather than in the same queue of skilled migrants. Why not?  

5 minutes ago, ArsalanAhmad said:

 haha.

I did not read the full report but there are few interesting point

(1) 80% of the applications (non complex) requires only 88 minutes to finalise

(2) there is a lot of inactivity in processing of the application

is this information (80% of applications would be processed till June 2019) mentioned in the report ??

No it is not. Atleast I am unable to find this info in report. That why i said it is "Shudni" (rumor).

for other two facts. It seems that they are treating Donkeys & horses the same manner. Either you are a skilled migrant (paying huge amount of taxes) or a boat arrival-er (taking huge sum of financial support) you are same. What a pity for tax payers.

1 hour ago, ArsalanAhmad said:

ANAO Report on citizenship processing is out, if anyone is interested

https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/efficiency-processing-applications-citizenship-conferral

 

somebody shoot a "Shudni" (rumor) that 80% of applications would be processed till June 2019 (End of current financial year) 

2 minutes ago, bma said:

Thank you!!! What number would you recommend calling? Just their general number? 1300 or something (I'd have to look it up). Thanks heaps!!

general number will be fine...you can call now...at this time of the day, load will be minimal and your call would be attended in 5-10 minutes.

1 minute ago, bma said:

Hi guys

Successfully passed the test in the beginning of July 2018. All quiet since then. Is this normal? Who do we call to inquire?

Thanks in advance!

strange!!! better to call and get the status. in many cases people called and status changed to approved within a week

1 hour ago, mariaoz13 said:

Hi guys,

I got my approval the 6/11 same date as the interview, since then no invite to the ceremony as yet.

How long it usually takes to get the ceremony invite?

Anybody know when are the next ceremony? I am from Sydney, Waverley Council.

 

Thanks a lot!

 

as per the trend I have seen, its withing 1.5 months after approval. But it depends how many ceremonies held by your local council in an year. Check website of your local council and probably in next ceremony your name would be included.

24 minutes ago, Mrs Depp said:

We applied 1st Feb 2018. Not heard a thing! 

From which city you applied? I applied in May 18 and still not heard anything. My friend applied in Feb 18 and same for him, no response. We both are from sydney.