Last modified 01/26/2024
Tips to obtain the Australian citizenship :
Immigrants in Australia, who have the condition of legal residents, after fulfilling the requirements pointed in the Australian Citizenship Act, are able of obtaining the Australian citizenship through the Ancient Law (valid since 1958) or the New Law (valid since 2007), according to the date in which the immigrant obtained his or her permanent residency.
How and when to obtain the Australian citizenship :
Australia has been permanently modifying their laws related to immigration, one of them is the Australian Citizenship Act, which started in 1958, been modified in 2007, and which is applied to all of those immigrants who acquire the condition of permanent resident from July of 2007 and who wish to become Australian citizens.
The Australian Citizenship Act approved in the year 2007, has one exception, because it only allows those immigrant who have permanent residency and presence before the new law became valid (June 30 of 2007), to be able to process their Australian citizenship with the requirements listed in the Ancient Law up to June 30 of 2010.
In any of those cases, the basic requirement for an immigrant to be considered as a permanent resident is to count with a minimum amount of years of permanent residency. This period starts from the moment in which the approval of the permanent residency of the immigrant who is legally in Australia and from the moment of his or her entrance to Australia, if the immigrant obtained his or her permanent residency when he or she was outside from the country.
Those who request the Australian Citizenship through the Australian Citizenship Act approved in the year 2007 must fulfill the following requirements:
• Be a legal resident
• Having a period of legal residency of, at least, for years before the process begins.
• Having a residency of 365 days in the four year period of legal residency.
• Not having left the country for more than a year in the period of legal residency of four years.
• Not having traveled outside the country or more than three months in the year in which the immigration application is been processed.
• Not having any kind of criminal record (jail time, police).
Those who request the citizenship through the Australian Citizenship Act approved in the year 1958 approved in the year 1958, and whose formal validity was until June the 30th in 2007, must present the following requirements:
• Been a legal resident
• Having a period of legal residency of 5 years before the process.
• Having a residency of 730 days in the period of legal residency for five years.
• Residing in the country for 365 days in the period of two years before the citizenship request.
• Not having any sort of criminal record (jail time, police).
It is important to mention that to be able to choose the periods of residency from the validity of the new law, the periods of residency with temporal visa can sum up to three years.
Besides fulfilling the corresponding for, the resident who wishes to obtain the Australian citizen must provide reference letter from three important people in his or her city, who have known him or her for more than two years. These people might be the Headmaster in the school his or her children are attending, the head doctor, the police chief, among others.
In the same way, the photograph that the immigrant selects in the application format, must be proved and validated by a Justice of Peace, signing and putting his or her name in the back of the picture.
The extension of time to obtain the condition of Australian citizen varies from 20 to 30 days, and once it is approved, a ceremony takes place in the local municipality, after making a vow as an Australian citizen, the immigrant obtains a certificate of citizenship, which will allow him or her to obtain an Australian passport, subscribe him or herself as a voter, postulate as a candidate for public charges, and receiving the social and economic benefits that the Australian State gives to its citizens. Obtaining the Australian citizenship does not imply giving up the citizenship of your country of origin.
Summing up, depending on the time you have resided in Australia, it is possible to use the Australian Citizenship Act, so the immigrant obtains the condition of an Australian citizen.
