Getting citizenship in Australia is a dream of many migrants but at the same time lots of rules have to be conferred with and criterions have to be fulfilled. The topic of Citizenship Ceremony gained some heat in the recent days and has become a topic of discussion. Following the same, the Commonwealth Ombudsman had conducted a study to see the time people have to wait for getting a citizenship in Australia.
The study was an 18-month investigation that came to a conclusion in December. The results of the study claim that there has been an increase in the number of people who have waited to get citizenship in Australia for more than two years period. The numbers have skyrocketed to percentage reaching about 450. These are the people who went under heightened identity checks that resulted in wait for more than two years for the outcome of citizenship by conferral application means.
Read Also: New Requirements for Getting Australian Citizenship
The study focused on the applications for citizenship that hovered around “enhanced screening and integrity checks” due to various background factors including country of origin, an “irregular” arrival or due to any changes made to personal information by the applicants.
The ombudsman found that there has been a decrease in the overall number of complex applications awaiting a decision on citizenship. Yet, the number of cases requiring enhanced screening has increased from 338 in November 2016 to almost 2000 by the middle of last year. Citizenship by conferral is a means open to permanent residents who satisfy a range of criteria, pass a citizenship test and take part in a citizenship ceremony.
The latest data on conferral applications tell that as on January 2018, there were 167,820 outstanding conferral applications, 5680 of which were more than two years old.
