G,day guys.
We need to know ( that is my wife and i ) after getting permanent residencey how long is it do you have to wait to apply to become an Aussie citizen ?, al replies will be helpfull. Thanks

Ps. We got our permanent residencey in November 2008 but came over to Australia in June 2007 .

Not really related to thread subject, but you'll find the answers at http://www.citizenship.gov.au

How is that possible, that's not even 2 years?

It is possible for a temporary resident to progress to permanent residence within 2 years.

Oops, I was reading that as having gone from PR to citizenship in less than 2 years. As far as I know that can't be done.

I see now that it was just arrived and then got PR (not citizenship).

Cool.

Incidentally, for so long I began to think you actually looked like Papa Lazaru and now it's happening all over again with Ben Kingsley!!....

Thanks Alex very helpful post, I only called yesterday to see when we are eligible & I got booked in for 2 weeks time to do the test, I only found out through Wendy that there is book to study.
How long after you have passed the test do you get the thumbs up basically that you are a citizen would any of you guys know.

You have to apply for citizenship after having passed the test. The test is merely a pre-requisite.

Our application took about 1 month to be approved (approved in mid August 2008) BUT we didn't formally become citizens until we attended the ceremony on January 26th 2009 (Australia day) as we were not invited to any ceremonies before then.

Thank you for that so I guess it would be around March & the ceremany would take in our local council I would imagine, is that right?

I'd like to be able to say "yes" but ultimately it's up to the discretion of whoever is dealing with your application at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and then the discretion and responsibility is passed onto your local council for arranging the ceremony (which can depend on people already waiting in your council area).

The bottom line is that it can vary by a matter of months when comparing against the progress of other individuals?

Exactly same in our case.

DIAC used to offer a non council based ceremony that they performed - It was always much quicker to opt for that one, but it had none of the pomp and circumstance of the council one, as it was just held in some DIAC offices.

Does anybody know if that option is still available? Owing to a cock up with my stupid UK police check, I don't really want to have to wait for the council to get it's act together...


S

Don't know about Sydney but I know they weren't prepared to do such a thing for me. I was told ceremony or nowt (well that's not exactly what they said but you get my drift )

Thanks, we just go with the flow, I hope its fast one.