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53 minutes ago, rammygirl said:

Odd. Have you ticked a box somewhere in the application you shouldn’t have? Sometimes the questions can be a bit ambiguous. I can’t see why they need maternal grandparents if you both are claiming as British citizens. 

Nope, it is very odd as they don't want both parents birth certificates anyway so how would they even know who the parents of the second parent were anyway.  I think it is a mistake but I don't want to now send the documents and have everything held up.

Hi all,

I have used the new UK online service (https://www.passport.service.gov.uk) to apply for a British passport for our child.  My partner is British by birth and I am British by acquired citizenship (residency), which was before our child was born.

However, once the application is completed, it tell me that I need to send all of the following.  It seems to me that there is a mistake here and that the grandparents documents would only be required for the parent chosen for documents to be applied in "Parents' documents".

Has anyone been through this?  I don't want to pay to get all these documents which appear to be unnecessary.

Thanks in advance!!

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On 30/03/2021 at 17:46, Melb2016 said:

Does anyone know if the virtual ceremony option is available in VIC?

Thanks. 

Have tried and failed so I don't think so.  For some reason they are being allowed in NSW but nowhere else.

8 hours ago, NRK said:

Really? What reason did they give?

"The Department conducts a small number of urgent ceremonies for candidates who have demonstrated they have genuinely compelling and compassionate circumstances. Places in these ceremonies are extremely limited."

Told them application is approved, but waiting on a ceremony to be eligible for HomeBuilder grant (no ceremony = no grant).  They said you do not meet the criteria for an urgent ceremony.

On 02/03/2021 at 14:54, NRK said:

No I don’t think so... there are email for all states... no harm in trying..

Have tried for VIC and got rejected.

2 hours ago, NRK said:

Why don’t you request virtual ceremony by emailing them?

Only NSW is doing this.

Any other state you just need to lobby your council to run more regular ceremonies.

1 hour ago, helppls said:

Is it a bad idea to move to Melbourne while waiting on citizenship? I've already passed the test and am still on 'received'

Not sure anyone knows.  It seems that two things need to happen after you pass the test ...
1. DOHA need to approve your application; and
2. DOHA need to assign you to your council.

Based on information on this portal, even after #1 happens and a couple of months have passed, people say they have spoken to their council and they don't have their application, so it is a bit of a guessing game as to what holds up #2 from happening after #1 is complete.

Can anyone shed any light?

1 hour ago, tt2 said:

Hi @Lynkim i did test beginning of October and was approved same day, was not even invited for Australia day and my council told me that immigration hasn't sent my name to council yet, they said hopefully I can do ceremony in March. Fingers crossed for you.

Are you talking about the same council or a different one?  If different, can you advise which?

I spoke to a friend who works at a council in Victoria (metro) and is involved in the citizenship ceremonies, advised me that applications are coming through from DOHA, but very few compared to what they normally are, so things are happening, just slowly (which is no news to anybody).
I wonder whether DOHA staff cannot work on applications remotely due to security issues as there are still cappings on the number of people who can visit the office and therefore even though things have resumed, there aren't enough people for them to catch up.

Has anyone asked the question or know anything about why Services Australia still aren't open for tests/interviews in regional VIC or whether this is a website error (says last updated 25-Nov-2020)?

According to this page ... https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship ...

"In-person citizenship appointments and tests have resumed across states and territories in accordance with health guidelines and local restrictions. In-person citizenship appointments and tests normally conducted by Services Australia have resumed in all regional locations except Victoria."

This means that testing hasn't resumed in Morwell, Shepparton, Bendigo, Warrnambool and Ballarat but not sure why this would be?

12 hours ago, MrsHzp said:

We live in Victoria , by council you mean the local council ? 

Yep ... Victoria is way behind all the other states and everything goes through the Melbourne office at the moment as the other offices are closed for tests/interviews.  It seems people who applied Nov/Dec 2019 were being called for tests/interviews at the moment in VIC.  Have seen people on another forum (Fair Go For Australian Citizenship on Facebook) mention that their scheduled tests in VIC and NSW have been cancelled again due to the outbreaks.

In Brisbane as you can see from the last post people who applied in Sep 2020 are being called for tests/interviews.

For reference, VIC had approx 57k applications outstanding at 31/10/2020 (https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/foi/files/2020/fa-201100415-document-released.pdf) and there were 164k applications outstanding for Australia at 30/09/2020 (https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/foi/files/2020/fa-201000456-document-released.PDF).

8 minutes ago, MrsHzp said:

Hi all,

my husbands timeline as follows :

date of application: 23/6/2020 

Status of application: received 

no emails whatsoever 

can anyone of same or around timelines guide as to what to do ? I see ppl after june receiving their invitations and here we are still holding on tight . Any suggestions will be appreciated! Cheers

Totally depends on where you live, you need to include your council and state to get a relevant reply.

VIC question ... it seems there are a few testing locations outside Melbourne (Shepparton, Bendigo, Ballarat, Morwell and Warrnambool) but some information on this forum indicates that everyone gets funnelled through Melbourne anyway.  Has anyone completed their test and/or interview at one of these centres outside Melbourne?  I'm interested to know if there are faster timelines in any of these regional offices as compared to Melbourne applications.

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/test-and-interview/learn-about-citizenship-interview-and-test/citizenship-test-locator

Here are two statistical documents that might be useful to people to refer that shows the number of applications, how many processed and what is in the queue:

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/foi/files/2020/fa-201000456-document-released.PDF
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/foi/files/2020/fa-200701402-document-released.PDF

After March 2020 it seems like there has been a massive dropoff in approvals which you'd expect, but this saw a big increase in September 2020.  Unfortunately, this information is mostly irrelevant as the queue is state/office based not national.

I have submitted an FOI request for "FA 20/10/00456" to be broken down at state/office level to provide some transparency and will post in this group if I am provided this information.

It seems things are moving rapidly in SA, WA and QLD ... can anyone update on any progressing applications in VIC (or even to know dates people applied but have still not heard anything)?

My partner applied in September 2020 in Melbourne with no updates at this point (which we expected) but it seems other states that might have meant the test invite was received.

Has anyone changed their address to another state to expedite this process?  It seems that each state may have its own queue whereas I had assumed they would go into a central pool for approval then sent back to the relevant state when you come to book the test.

Wouldn't mind driving to Adelaide to move things forward at a faster pace!