jopaulss

Hi All
Just thought i would let you know how our citizenship interview went this morning. Had an appointment at 9.00 and 9.30 am for hubby and me, so went in as soon as doors opened, collected a number ticket, went and sat down. Within 5 minutes was called into a booth, and welcomed by a lovely young man. He started to go through our applications, most had been done as i had accidentley sent the passports, birth certificates etc in with the main application, and some kind person had photo copied the lot and then posted it all back to me, so this saved time today. Anyway he starts going through some questions, how long had we been in Australia, why are we now doing our citizenship and then the point i had been dreading as i have a memory like a sieve, "can you please tell me your 4 responsibilities and your 6 privilages well i panicked a bit, then said yes of course i will try , so i named 2 and paul named 2 responibilities and then we did 3 each on the privilages, got them all right, phew !!!
So we progressed on he put my details into the computer and said "ahhhh" " have you ever been to south australia?" No i said only melbourne, he carried on and picked up pauls entered it all into the computer and wrote approved across the the top of his application. Well he said paul yours is approved, Joanne we will have to wait for a report to come back as you have a name sake in SA who is wanted Just bloody typical hey, my surname is common he said, but no worries youll be right, it should only take a couple of months to sort out.
Well as you can imagine Paul came out with a huge grin, going on about how he must talk to my parents about my criminal past, cheeky bugger!!!!
Anyway it wasnt bad all in all quite straight forward, so shouldnt have to wait to long now and i can offically be an aussie, as the rest of my bunch already are now
Joanne

Teresa

That seems to be happening to quite a few people, having dodgy namesakes!! What did you get up to on your trip away

Anyway fab to hear its all progressing well for you
Love

Teresa xxx

Bordy

Yeah & it always seems to be the wives with the dodgy past.

Same happened with us & Mrs B finally got the all clear this week ( interview was in February ) Just waiting on next ceremony now at local town hall.

Jacqui

Well it sounds like you had a "proper" interview and much tougher than ours! We turned up on time at the post office and asked for the manager who was doing the interview. We were expecting to be taken through to a private part of the post office. Nope, she just dealt with all our paperwork right there, at the counter, with people being served coming and going. She checked the forms against our birth certificates etc and didn't question my husbands numerous trips abroad since we've been here (we were worried in case his business trips counted against the 2 year requirement). She read out the questions re responsibilites and privileges to which we answered yes and that was it. Not what I would call an interview. That was last year. This week my passport arrived in the post.

jopaulss

Theresa , paul said to me "hey did you really go to Melbourne???" Bloody cheek, everyone thinks im a crim now
I can honestly say i did go for 2 weeks on a training course to melbourne and have never been to south australia, , honest.
Jo

Merlot

Welcome to the Club.

M

Vegemite Kids

Congratulations - immediate ones for Paul and in anticipation for you Jo

Go on admit it, you just want to keep us all in suspense.

As the Australians say "she'll be right"

ANA123

I wondered how strict they are on the 2 year thing? We''ll have been here for 2 years in february but will have spent about 6 weeks out of the country on hols, do we need to add that on to arrival date before applying? also, anybody got an average time it takes from application to ceremony? Thanks,
Michaela

JAJ

To keep it simple make sure you have the full 730 days physically in Australia.

There is some flexibility if you were sent on business trips by an Australian employer, but the problem is the concession will need to be signed off by someone more senior in DIMIA and that can literally take months.

Just wait the extra 6 weeks. Use the residence calculator at http://www.citizenship.gov.au

Jeremy