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I had called the helpline, concerned I had maybe missed an email for my test and the staff member was able to tell me over the phone that a test invite had not been sent out yet. When I did receive a test invite by email and not a immi message, I called the same helpline to question why and a new staff member stated that not all applicants will receive a message in their immi account. It seems like you will receive different information depending on who takes your call.

Hopefully your ceremony will be soon. I know several applicants around Perth that have attended their ceremony roughly 4 months after approval. For instance, I believe that Kwinana is now working through September approvals, which would make that a 5 month wait. To be honest, I think applicants applying from anywhere should expect a long process that could well take up to the department's posted online times.

It's hard to say. Each state and territory office definitely have their own special way of processing applications and at times some seem to be quite a bit faster than others. Less populated areas may have less applicants to process but then have less staff doing the processing. Some states send out test invites early and this allows you to possibly reschedule your test to an earlier date when taking a test at a Home Affairs office and not a DHS office. This can speed up your timeline quite a bit. You also have to consider the ceremony wait times when selecting where to apply from. If you are from a council with a large number of citizenship applicants, you could be waiting 5-6 months for your ceremony. If you happen to be in a council with very few applicants, you could end up having your ceremony in less than a month. My personal opinion would be that Perth would offer a slightly quicker timeline than Sydney.

I was told by an employee of Home Affairs that the system will not allow you to proceed past page 6 if you do not meet the residency requirement for citizenship. Sadly I believe you will have to wait until your eligibility date to proceed further. I submitted my application on my residency eligibility date and had no problems proceeding all the way through, and the entire application did not take too long.

Regarding DHS tests, you can call them to reschedule your test to a later date but cannot bring your test date forward. You also can't check or reschedule your test appointment online like DOHA test takers can, you must call the number listed on your invite. From what I have seen, Victoria has been sending out invites quite early, within two months of applying, but the actual test dates are often scheduled at least six months from the invite. Queensland seems to also be receiving early invites. NSW seems to be sending out invites around the 6-8 month mark but the test dates are then scheduled within 2 months of their invites. This is of course general observances and things can vary. Each state and territory, as well as individual case officers, have different ways and timelines of processing applications. Councils generally don't make a difference or play a role in processing until it comes time to the citizenship ceremony. There really isn't enough stats regarding applicants from regional areas taking tests at DHS offices so it's difficult to tell if their timelines vary greatly from the averages in each state and territory.

I think Chris N Lora thought you wrote "It has been 21 months" instead of "is it 21 months" when you were asking how long you should wait before contacting department about not receiving test invite. MPs generally won't get involved until you are well beyond processing times. I would be extremely surprised if you didn't end up receiving a test invite within 9 months of your application date. Most if not all 2019 applicants are getting their invites sent within 6-8 months, many much sooner. Some states and territories send out test invites early, some late. The later you have to wait for a test invite, usually the sooner your actual scheduled test date is. So receiving a test invite early doesn't necessarily mean you will get to sit the test before someone receiving an invite several months after you unless you are able to reschedule your interview to an earlier date which can be done when taking a test at a DOHA office, sadly not a DHS office. Thankfully DHS offices usually don't have a long waiting list for citizenship tests. I personally would discourage you from filing any complaints about not receiving a test invite until at least 9 months, but feel free to call the helpline every so often to make sure you haven't been given a test date and not received an email.

Congrats! Was this via the online request that says" compliments, complaints, and suggestions" or did you call them? I am surprised your local office actually called you about approval as I have never heard this happening before. Whatever the case, glad you finally got approval.

Was your request turned down? They are supposedly required to supply you with case notes and screen shots of your application under the Freedom of Information Act and most people seem to have gotten results. I believe they have 30 days to send you the FOI request. I believe the key is to submit the right wording regarding your FOI request. There is a template available for an FOI request that has proven very effective that can be found on another forum. I don't believe we are allowed to place links to other forums on here but if you Google "Citizenship processing timeline whirlpool" there is a clickable line towards the top of the page which reads FOI Template. This may make a big difference.

I agree that in theory it's a great idea to have a ceremony in your local council where you can engage with local government and other new citizens, but the number of new citizens each year has just reached too high of levels to make the current ceremony system effective. During the inaugural year of the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948, around 2,500 people became new citizens, compared with 130,000 last year. I have heard stories of approved citizenship applicants missing out on good job opportunities and having to spend money to renew overseas passports for travel all because they hadn't yet attended a ceremony due to it being a 5 month wait for many. I just wish they wouldn't make the ceremony a mandatory step to gaining citizenship and maybe just run events on Australia Day to welcome any new citizens that wish to attend.

You are correct regarding the Australian Police check. This is indeed only run by the department during or after the interview and test. I should have clarified that by background checks I mean more of the integrity screening and biometric checks to makes sure you are who you and your documents say you are. Most of these types of checks I believe are done before an applicant sits a test and this is why most applicants receive requests for further documents most often before they sit the test. One thing that supposedly can really delay approval is if you have traveled overseas considerably to many different nations, as someone stated they do checks with all the various nations you have traveled to. Who knows if this is correct or not. I guess individual approval times may vary from person to person depending on the complexity of the case, but you would think they would follow a set process. If you have cleared all checks including the Aussie police check and have sat the test, there should be no reason why you shouldn't be approved unless they simply want to intentionally cause processing delays as some sort of deterrent to those thinking about applying for citizenship. It seems like it would be a good idea to streamline the process and perform all checks before one sits a test and then have you sit the test as a final step where you would then on the same day get approved and say your pledge in the office where you take the test. I don't quite see why the local councils have to get involved in dealing with ceremonies. It's not only a cost to taxpayers but also takes away resources and government workers time to arrange ceremonies, not to mention adding substantial delays to our processing. That's my rant for the day. lol.

You can submit an FOI request regarding your citizenship application, asking for files, case notes, and screen shots that relate to your Citizenship Application. They won't however be able to offer you any advice or an explanation as to why your application has not yet been approved. This will only shed some light on what has been done on your application thus far. https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/foi/Pages/how-to-make-a-request.aspx

Usually most background checks are processed and completed before applicants take the test, but when an applicant reschedules their test date to a much earlier date these checks are often not even started yet by the time the applicant takes their test. This explains why they wouldn't yet be able to approve this type of application. The department cannot plan for an applicant who reschedules their test earlier.

Subject line read : Citizenship Correspondence Email for a Test Appointment but email address ended in @border.gov.au. As a last resort, you can also ring the DOHA helpline to ask if you have been sent a test invite, although calling them isn't always easy to get through in a timely manner. Best advice is to call late in the week early in the day. I have heard others saying the representative was able to tell them whether an invite had been sent out. As the invites are sent out usually well in advance, you could probably give them a call once a month if you're very concerned about the possibility of missing an email.

I rang DOHA helpline about this issue and they said the best advice regarding the test invitation is to check your email. The representative said not all applicants will receive a message in their immi account nor will they receive a text message or other correspondence. They said it all depends on the individual case officer, but seemed to imply that all applicants should receive an email regarding their test appointment. As I took my test at a DHS office and did not receive any other correspondence other than email, I would say simply focus on waiting for an email.

The Home affairs website has a list of their test centre locations and whether they are a DOHA office or DHS (centrelink office). You can see the list here https://archive.homeaffairs.gov.au/Citizenship/Pages/locator/Citizenship-Test-Locator.aspx You can also see the list here if easier : http://www.aussiecitizenshiptest.com/australian-citizenship-test-centres.php Note that in this second link DIBP stands for Department of Immigration and Border Protection and is the same as DOHA If I remember right, the application asked you to choose the test centre that is closest or most convenient for you to attend.

Applied June 2019, Test Invite November, Test early January 2020, Approval TBA, Ceremony TBA.

Crazy, I don't have that Citizenship Appointments tab in my account. It must have something to do with my test being scheduled at a DHS office. I also was not able to view or reschedule my appointment on their website using the client ID and family name.

I can only speak for my own personal application and can say I definitely did NOT receive a message in immi account. To date the only message still listed in account is the original acknowledgement of application received message. The only thing that may make a difference is that my test was scheduled at a DHS office and not a DOHA office.Maybe applicants taking their test at a DOHA office receive messages directly in their accounts. Then again there seems to be different ways of processing for different people. I have noticed a strong lack of consistency in the while process and have given up trying to compare my application timeline and process against others. You even get inconsistent information directly from the department depending on which DOHA employee you talk to on the helpline.

I only received an email. There was no status change and no message added in Immi account. Test email came from a strange email address but subject title read "correspondence email for test appointment". Be sure to check your email spam folder just in case.

I renewed mine about 3 months early and just updated new passport number in Immi account saying the old one expired. Seemed to be no problems. Of course you'll want to be sure to hold onto the old passport as it was requested at interview to show my original entry stamps to Australia. Not sure if this is always required but was in my case.

Thanks for the encouragement. Yeah its only been about 10 days for me at the moment, lol, it just feels like an eternity. Maybe they're just hesitant to let any more Americans in

The actual ceremony has always seemed so far away that I haven't given it much thought. I'll probably just accept my certificate and then go home to catch up on all the missed sleep caused from all the stress of this whole process.lol. Good news is that I have completed test and there is no wait time in my council as very few apply for citizenship here. Bad news is that despite completing the test, still awaiting approval. Sadly when one takes a test at a regional DHS office as opposed to a DOHA office you can't get approved on the same day like so many other applicants seem to be experiencing. I have a feeling my application has gone back into a pile somewhere patiently awaiting for someone to glance at it. Thinking they should make applying for citizenship an Olympic event, it's definitely just as difficult as a marathon and with a lot of hurdles thrown in.

millski88 is correct. Only Melbourne based applicants seem to be getting test invites as early as 2-3 months. Most applicants from other states and regional areas are still waiting on average around 7-9 months to receive a test invite. Although test dates are usually scheduled many months in the future, Melbourne applicants have the benefit of faster processing since they are receiving faster test invites and can try to prepone their test to a much earlier date.

Not from 2017, I'm a 2019er, but I recently heard that a 2017 applicant withdrew their application and reapplied this past December. Their new application was then recently approved this August I believe and they have been invited to a ceremony in a month or so. So much for processing applications in order. So sorry that your application seems to have been neglected.

I haven't heard of this happening before and know of a few individuals that have very recently been able to prepone their test but they were from either Melbourne or Sydney. Not sure why Adelaide would make a difference. Hopefully they haven't just decided to not allow preponing tests. Congrats on the quick test invite email though. In regards to the requested overseas police clearance, was it requested because you were in a certain country for more than 90 days and outside of Australia for more than 12 months, or did they just randomly ask for it? Also, what country were you originally from if you don't mind answering of course?