Approved to Ceremony Timeline - Sunshine Coast

[Andyt0904 4]

Hi - I live on the Sunny Coast. Had test on 10th June (100%) and immi account changed to approved on 7th August. Happy days!!!

Questions

1. How long until you receive a note in the post re the approval and next steps? I know that comms do not come via immi account once approved which seems strange?

2. How long before we hear about ceremony dates?

Any one have any similar experience? Thanks

Andy

[Nora 216]

On 17/08/2021 at 11:17, Andyt0904 said:

Hi - I live on the Sunny Coast. Had test on 10th June (100%) and immi account changed to approved on 7th August. Happy days!!!

Questions

1. How long until you receive a note in the post re the approval and next steps? I know that comms do not come via immi account once approved which seems strange?

2. How long before we hear about ceremony dates?

Any one have any similar experience? Thanks

Andy

May take a week or 2 for you to receive a mail with your approval letter. 

From there, it will take from 0-8months to get to your ceremony, times can vary of course. I am also in Sunny Coast (Moreton Bay Regional Council), and been waiting 6 months already. 

All the best for you.

Nora

[Marty 8]

Hey Andy

We are also on the Sunny Coast, did our test back in early February.  We were both approved but only I got a letter around 4 weeks later.  

Still waiting to hear about a date for the ceremony though (called them about a month ago and they said it's around 7 months at the moment till you'll get an invite).

Congrats on the test result!

Marty

[samlab 83]

We’re on the Sunny Coast & still waiting for our ceremony it’s been 7 months. 

Test taken in February and approval in March. 

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by samlab

[Marty 8]

You can't get even a rough idea from the Department of Home Affairs if you ring them and they don't bother responding to any emails it seems, so I've I submitted a freedom of information request to see how many people are in the same situation on the Sunny Coast - and how many people are getting a ceremony per month here.  

I'll post back here if and when I get a response.

[samlab 83]

@Marty Any update? How long have you been waiting? 

 

[Marty 8]

Response

As at 22 October 2021, there were 1,406 people whose application  for Australian 
citizenship by conferral had been approved and who were waiting to attend an Australian 
citizenship ceremony at the Sunshine Coast Regional council (QLD). 

however they didn’t answer the second part of my question which was about how many they’re getting through per month. 
 

maybe someone could get that info from Council then we’d be able to work out theoretical maximum wait time from now…

in the meantime we had to refresh our uk passports this week, so we are bound to hear something now

Edited November 12, 2021 by Marty

[Andyt0904 4]

On 12/11/2021 at 06:42, samlab said:

@Marty Any update? How long have you been waiting? 

 

Still waiting. Been three months since date of approval. 
 

[samlab 83]

Wait times now changed to 7 - 9 months of approval on government website. 
 

[Andyt0904 4]

Anyone have any further updates? 

[samlab 83]

On 03/12/2021 at 13:43, Andyt0904 said:

Anyone have any further updates? 

Nothing yet. 

[samlab 83]

It’s been 9 months of waiting so I called them. The phone call took 54 minutes  from start to finish! After the initial 35 min wait and then answering the qualifying questions,  I got passed to a “specialist” for another wait but eventually I managed to speak to someone.

Here’s basically what I was told …

It’s  just a matter of carrying on waiting. They couldn’t tell me how much longer.

We are still in a pandemic so wait times are longer

If it takes longer than 12 months, not to worry. It wouldn’t be my fault and each case will be judged individually. It’s not my fault if I do not get an invite before 12 months.

I asked if we had missed out on the Australia Day ceremony and was told “There is still time to receive an invite, invites are sent out approx 4 weeks prior to ceremony” 

Not worth an hour of my time really
 

 

 

[Marty 8]

6 hours ago, samlab said:

It’s been 9 months of waiting so I called them. The phone call took 54 minutes  from start to finish! After the initial 35 min wait and then answering the qualifying questions,  I got passed to a “specialist” for another wait but eventually I managed to speak to someone.

Here’s basically what I was told …

It’s  just a matter of carrying on waiting. They couldn’t tell me how much longer.

We are still in a pandemic so wait times are longer

If it takes longer than 12 months, not to worry. It wouldn’t be my fault and each case will be judged individually. It’s not my fault if I do not get an invite before 12 months.

I asked if we had missed out on the Australia Day ceremony and was told “There is still time to receive an invite, invites are sent out approx 4 weeks prior to ceremony” 

Not worth an hour of my time really
 

 

 

To use the pandemic as an excuse in the Sunshine Coast is not really acceptable!   Each case judged on what exactly?  Approvals have already been granted, there’s no criteria for judging!  all they need to do is get everyone in a field and hand some certificates out!

ah well, we’ll carry on waiting for judgement day.

[samlab 83]

Noosa have their future citizenship  ceremony dates on their website so I have contacted Sunshine Coast Council to ask for dates of Citizenship Ceremonies for 2022 & how many people will be invited to each ceremony.

I will post their response once/ if I get  it. 
 

[Marty 8]

Nice one @samlab - good luck in getting that information from anyone at council, I tried and they were very vague with the stock "it's out of our control" type answers. Getting that information through council's right to information page costs $52.60 - and I haven't tried all the links off that page to try and see if they publish that information anywhere. https://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/Council/Organisation-and-Governance/Right-to-Information-and-Privacy/About-Right-to-Information-and-Privacy

Edited January 27 by Marty

[Marty 8]

Actually - next confirmed dates are February 9th 2022 and March 8th 2022 but they can't say how many people are invited, just that they're restricting guests due to Covid.

Fingers crossed for March or have we given up crossing fingers yet?  

[samlab 83]

2 minutes ago, Marty said:

 

Actually - next confirmed dates are February 9th 2022 and March 8th 2022 but they can't say how many people are invited, just that they're restricting guests due to Covid.

Fingers crossed for March or have we given up crossing fingers yet?  

@Marty Result! Brilliant Thanks. Well done on finding that out. Yeah they’ve got to invite us to the March one surely. 

I got a reply from the Citizenship Delivery Program department today. Here mainly what they wrote …

 I wish to acknowledge your concerns resulting from the delay in progressing your application ceremony allocation.

 Once approved applicants are required to attend a Citizenship Ceremony with 12 months of approval. Noting that your citizenship application was approved  on 27 March 2021, it is expected that you will receive an invitation to a future ceremony within that 12 month timeframe.  
When you are allocated to a future citizenship ceremony, you will receive an invitation approximately two to four weeks prior to the scheduled date. Thank you for confirming that your contact details are up-to-date as this will ensure your future ceremony invitation is sent to the correct address.

Citizenship ceremonies have been impacted by COVID-19 related lockdowns, with some ceremonies have been cancelled and re-scheduled to a later date. In addition to this, the number of conferees permitted to attend each ceremony has been limited to comply with relevant social distancing guidelines. 

 Due to the large volume of applications proceeding to ceremony the Department is working closely with local councils to reduce wait times wherever possible

[Marty 8]

 

1 hour ago, samlab said:

 Once approved applicants are required to attend a Citizenship Ceremony with 12 months of approval. Noting that your citizenship application was approved  on 27 March 2021, it is expected that you will receive an invitation to a future ceremony within that 12 month timeframe.  

I'm expecting one in the next week then - but even then would probably fall outside the invitation window for the March ceremony now.  I won't hold my breath! 

[samlab 83]

Reply from SCC …

We have a confirmed date of March 8 for the next citizenship ceremony, which will host around 500 recipients.

We are still working on confirming our next dates, but there will be another large ceremony in May, and then we will move forward with our regular ceremonies (approx. 70 per ceremony) from June onwards.

Depending on when you were approved from Home Affairs you may be invited to either the March or May ceremony, however please note because of a backlog we are experiencing delays and those who were approved in 2021 are sitting a little closer to a 10-11 month wait time. This will go down after we do the two large ceremonies, however we don’t have access to the current wait list so we aren’t able to guarantee any firm times.  

[samlab 83]

At last We got our invite for 8th March Ceremony just a bit excited

[Marty 8]

@samlabYay, congratulations! Me too!

[samlab 83]

19 minutes ago, Marty said:

@samlabYay, congratulations! Me too!

@Marty Congratulations to you too  

 

[Kvand 0]

@samlab how did you get the invite, by post or email? 

Congratulations!! 

[Marty 8]

56 minutes ago, Kvand said:

@samlab how did you get the invite, by post or email? 

Congratulations!! 

They come via email.

[Andyt0904 4]

Finally have ceremony date. 8th April. I applied for citizenship on Jan 10th 2019!