diddy

How annoying is this? My Mum may have Aussie citizenship coz her Father took citizenship after he moved out about 70 years ago (he's dead now).

Does anyone know how this affects her children, coz I'll be gutted if I'm entitled to citizenship after going through the points system crap.

Paul.

mand8002

Not sur but my husband managed to get citizenship by descent as his father was born in Australia and was an Australian citizen even though he lived in UK. There is a section on the immigration site about it I think.

Hutch

Not sure it goes two generations if you see what I mean. I think that because your mum got it by 'grant', rather than decent, then it doesn't extend as far as you. Could be talking out of my arse of course and I'm sure ABC or someone will be along shortly to put me right.

logan

Not entirely sure, but I know my parents got their citizenship, and I got mine 'through' them.....I only recently saw the Citizenship Certificate, and I was tacked onto the back of it! Best thing they ever did though!

chatty34

Not sure either but the same as some of the other replies, my husband managed to get citizenship by descent because his Mother was born in Australia. You don't say if your mother was born there, reading between the lines I am presuming that she is wasn't. I am not 100% but I do remember us having to provide MIL Australian Birth Certificate so maybe the descent option isn't the route that you should look at.

moneypenny20

If she was born in Aus, you would have been able to get citizenship "by descent". If she got citizenship "by descent" (born in UK) you are not entitled to citizenship "by descent".

JAJ

A few more facts are needed. When was your mother born and when did her father take Australian citizenship, to begin with.

If her father moved to Australia in 1935 how long did he live in Australia? There was no such thing as Australian citizenship at the time, if he lived in Australia between 1944 and 1949, he would have become Australian automatically on 26 January 1949.

As far as I know citizenship by descent (for Australia) was never automatic and needs to be registered. Your mother might be able to register now if she was born in the UK, but it won't help you get citizenship.

Jeremy

diddy

Thanks Jeremy.

This is where it gets tricky.

My Grandfather moved to Oz in 1935. He joined the army in 1939 and ended up as a Japanese POW from 1940 till 1945. He went back to UK, then returned to Oz in 1946. Then at some point in early 1949 he returned to UK with Welsh wife (Grandmother) he met in 1946, for the birth of my Mum on 17th March 1949. They all returned to Oz in late 1949. He never left the country again. My Grandmother and Mum came back to UK permanently in 1956.

So it's all a bit dodgy re dates.

Paul.

JAJ

Regarding your grandfather, the deal for him is that he became an Australian citizen if he was ordinarily resident in Australia between 26 January 1944 and 26 January 1949.

It is likely that DIMIA would regard him as having been 'ordinarily resident' in Australia throughout 1940-1945 as he was serving in the Australian forces. And ordinary residence is not normally broken by short absences, so he should be able to get away with his absences in 1945-46 and 1949, in the light of the fact he'd been living in Australia since 1935.

Details are on form 119: http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/119.pdf

What this means is for your *mother* is that she may well be able to register now as an Australian citizen by descent, although she may need assistance in putting the necessary evidence together that your grandfather became Australian on 26.01.49.
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/118.pdf

The bad news however is that this won't help you get Australian citizenship, however.

Incidentally, if your grandmother entered Australia with a permanent entry permit before 26 January 1949 she may well have become an Australian citizen automatically if your grandfather became Australian (based on marriage to an Australian citizen, rather than 5 years residence). If she is still alive, she could try applying for a citizenship cert using form 119.

Jeremy

diddy

Thanks Jeremy.

adenray

Hi, We have applied for our daughter to receive her Citizenship by Descent papers so that we can then apply for her Australian Passport. Can you tell me how long it took for your husband to receive his papers please.

Vanessa

Don't know if this will help but I applied for a Citizenship Certificate for my step-son in about April this year and it came during July so took about 3 months. He was applying for it by birth (parents were PR at the time of his birth but had lost their old passports with the visas in). In the meantime we applied for the passport anyway without the Certificate and they must have checked the records in Canberra and we got the passport without it.

adenray

Vanessa, thanks for the information. My husband was born in Oz and therefore has his Oz birth certificate. We have had to send this off with the application for our daughter's citizenship by descent.

Unfortunately my husband has never applied for his Australian Passport and we have been told that we need to wait for our duaghters citizenship papers to be granted and hubby's Oz Birth Certificate to be returned before we can apply for their Oz passports. We have also been told that we need to apply for their Oz passports in person as this will be their first application for an Oz passport. We currently live in Crete and have to return to the UK to get these passports. Hopefully, once we get their two passports then we can get on with lodging my application for the migration for spouse.

chatty34

Hi, My husbands Citizenship by descent took 12 months to come back, I realise it may have taken longer because he is an adult.
Just a thought though, wouldn't it be quicker for you to just include your daughter in your application for the Spouse visa which can have a turn around of 1 week if the application is simple ie married with children. Your daughter would then be entitled to Citizenship anyway after living there for 2 years. Just thinking that you would get your husbands birth certificate back before your daughters citizenship certificate and his birth certificate is needed to apply for the passport then Spouse visa.
You may not be in any rush in which case it matters neither way.
Good Luck!

adenray

I hope it doesn't take that long! I will have pulled all of my hair out by that time. Hubbies birth certificate went off with the paperwork for daughters citizenship by descent application so wouldn't know now how to get that back if we decided to change my migration application! Aagh!!!!