smurtaza

Dear All,

Is it mandatory to attend citizenship ceremony to gain citizenship?We live in Canterbury City Council NSW.How many times a year this ceremony takes place?

Please comment...

Thanks,

Pomster

apparently it is mandantory... how often are they held? We have been told every 3 months, but we have been waiting since 4th Jan to be advised of our date, so the answer seems to be 'how long is a piece of string?'

Pollyana

Why not ask your council how often they hold them?

mumomonty

Your local council will tell you when they hold them.
It is no big deal and the results are worth it.

smurtaza

Local city council says that they conduct citizenship ceremony every month.What does this means?Does this mean that I may attend the ceremony next month of making an application?

Please comment...

Thanks,

tabby

As I understand it you make your application they send you a letter back giving the date you need to attend the thingy! I presume if it's not suitable you can ring the DIMIA and change it for another day.

NickyC

Well you have to allow them time to process the application - it's not just a case of handing in your form and attending a ceremony the next week.

They do perform some checks on you to ensure that you are who you say you are. Plus police checks, too, from memory. No idea how long they take. I'd imagine you'd be offered a place at the first available ceremony after your application has been processed successfully.

thebears

Do they provide beer and chips?

NickyC

No, but I did get a native tree in a pot instead.

mumomonty

Yeah you have to go for an initial interview to see you are suitable and that's when you pay for it all from memory. There's loads of info on the web about it.

Ceri

Are you submitting your application online?

I submitted my application online, this is how my path to becoming a A*ssie c*t*z*n ( swear words to me hence the ** ) basically went:

After you submit the application form along with your payment ( I submitted my payment with my application form) they will phone you. I seem to recall this phone call is within the week of submitting the application . It's just to confirm that you have applied etc ( just a security measure). They then will send you a letter with a date for an interview in a local post office in the given area that you have stated you wanted on the application form, or the nearest area that they conduct the interviews. I think my interview was just a few weeks after I submitted my application form.

The interview is just basic checks - it's just going through the application form that you submitted. - things like mother's name, fathers name ,your age, address, are you a crim, do you hold a record? etc, etc - yes , yes yes, no , and blah blah blah and snooze.... They also ask what are your responsibilities and "privileges" ( I've got to laugh at the privilege word, sorry I have a warped sense of humour) are - it's just basically defend aus, vote blah and blah (The responsibilities and "privileges" are at the below gov site)

when you are accepted . I say "accepted", because I doubt very much that they turn anyone down who are eligible to apply for it unless they are a mass terrorist or something - They do seem desperate for everyone to become citizens - Hell, even my other half who did not know the responsibilities and privileges got accepted. .
Actually, he did know them -it's just that he said "excuse me" to the question at the interview -as in "say that again you are mumbling and I didn't understand you" -The PO mistress who was a right old dragon ( which is an insult to dragons - dragons are a lot nicer than her lol -she was a right old B*) huffed and said " I have to mark down that you do not know them" and she did not give him a chance to explain ( she really was an old grumpy B*tch). I also saw her ticking the "no he did know them" - But he still got accepted - so much for you must know them .They must have turned a blind eye to that on his form when they doled out his acceptance) .

Anyway, where was I?? I'm rambling - when you are accepted , they will send you a letter saying you've been accepted (pretty obvious of course ). There will be in the acceptance letter a date for the citizenship ceremony -this depends on when your council holds them. The time between the interview and the acceptance letter can take a few months - it depends on "their" workload I suppose . I think mine took about a month, maybe two months - I can't remember ( I like to forget the non important issues in life like getting accepted to become a citizen to country which I will never consider to be mine .) - It wasn't a very long time anyway.

There is a phone number on the acceptance letter - You are asked to phone this number to confirm you will be attending the ceremony at the given date, and how many guests you would like to bring along with you etc ( that is if you want to take along some friends to laugh at you ... I mean to support you)

If you can not attend the ceremony at the date they've given you such as for reasons due to other commitments that you can't get out of - Just tell them .I would think they probably will be able to give you another date for the next ceremony.

No there is no beer at the ceremony , it's just cups of tea, coffee and little sandwiches - It's a bit like a teddy bears picnic, but much more boring . Personally, I'd rather have tea with the teddies lol .
I personally think this is a very good time to slip out the door - straight after you grab your certificate and tree off the mayor ( my sapling died within the week. I left it in direct sunlight and did not water it lol - so much for being a tough native - I managed to quickly kill it) . I Discreetly ( or not so discreetly) shuffled up to the exit door - and ran!.
I didn't hang around for all the "entertainment" and little sandwiches and tea . At the very first opportunity I was out of there like a shot. The bloke they hired to play the didgeridoo was more than enough entertainment for my ears lol( actually he is a good friend of ours )

Good luck - Not that you need any luck what so ever. It's very straight forward.

All the info you need is at the gov site below:

http://www.citizenship.gov.au/how.htm

Scossie

Gillian and I had our ceremony on Australia Day, on the south foreshore of the Swan River in Perth.

We had a very different experience to Ceri & her tea and sandwiches!

We were given our certificates after taking the oath, and next thing we knew, loads of people started turning up to help us celebrate!

Imagine our surprise when this crowd grew to about half a million people and the beer started flowing big time!!
It started to get a bit embarrassing when all of a sudden there was a full air show with sky divers and military fly pasts!!

Loads of people in their boats started turning up on the river and waving to us!
I was just remarking to Gillian that all this was a bit much just because we had decided to become Aussies, when Perth City threw a half hour long fireworks display for us which apparently cost 2 million dollars!!!

Bloody Hell..... We were well chuffed...!!!

I just hope every BE member gets as good a ceremony as we got...

Cheers... John....

Siren & Brian

You forgot about the tv and radio!!

Siren & Brian

Thinking about it a little further all I got was a slap on the arse.

Scossie

Bloody hell Brian!
I didn't want to brag.....

But yes, Brian was there when Gillian & I were interviewed by a TV crew, & appeared on the news later on....

I was also whisked off by a radio guy and was interviewed on air by one of our local radio stations....

Etc. etc.... Same old, same old......