Shamus0712

Hi All My husband and myself have been living in Australia since 2009, we came here when we retired to be with our children and grandchildren, we are now aged 72 and 74 We are toying with the idea of becoming Australian Citizens but aren't sure as to whether it would be of benefit to us in anyway, So we would like to know if there are any people out there who may have been in the same position as us as we would much appreciate there input .... or any advise at all would be great ... many thanks

Jerseygirl

Welcome to BE.

I have opened a new thread in the Australia forum for your post. Someone will probably be along shortly to help you.

Shamus0712

Thank you

quoll

Well, it wouldn't disadvantage you and is not that onerous a process. It'd stop you needing to get RRVs every now and again. If you're planning on ending your days there then you might appreciate being able to vote in the politicians who govern you but, then again, you might not want to bother having to go to vote. If you decide at some point to go back for a year or two then return to Australia you'd have no problems doing so. Hard to think why not actually.

Beoz

If you commit a serious crime you'll be able to continue to live near your grandchildren rather than being deported back to the UK.

OzTennis

I can't see any significant Cons to becoming an Australian citizen. Providing dual nationality is permissible and you don't have to relinquish any citizenship (it is with British) it, as pointed out, is not an onerous process to acquire Australian citizenship. Win, win methinks. Good luck.

Amazulu

No disadvantage

I collect citizenships. I currently have 3 - Australia, UK and South Africa and am about to get my 4th, Irish - to be sure, to be sure

Shamus0712

Many thanks for your input folks. I think we will probably go for it

commonwealth

The biggest CON I would say is compulsory voting.

In a true democracy, people should be allowed the choice not to vote.

spouse of scouse

A squiggle on a piece of paper once every couple of years or so. Hardly a huge con. You can always exercise your democratic rights and vote for Donald Duck (or Donald Trump, which amounts to the same thing)

bourbon-biscuit

People can spoil their ballot. Turning up to vote is a civic duty like paying taxes, abiding by the law, etc. What one does in the ballot box is entirely up to the individual.

The rationale behind compulsory voting is very interesting and some of the gains from a compulsory voting system wouldn't have occurred to me before I read up on it. In my youth (!) I thought it should be up to individuals to decide whether they vote or not; now I think very differently.

Japonica

Biggest Pro in our books is the ability to get processed quicker if you travel overseas quite often. When I came back last year, myself and another PR (a German who had an Aussie partner) were stuck in the line with the tourists and it took us almost two hours to get to the front of the line. His phone kept buzzing because his partner was wondering what was taking so long and my husband had given up. By the time I made it past the checkpoint, my luggage had been removed from the carousel. So, yeah, Australian e-passport and self processing, big win.

bcworld

The e-gates accept quite a long list of ePassports now...no Germany on the list yet though. I'm just glad they have them on the way out now as well...no need to interact with those miserable gits working at passport control at MEL!

Japonica

No kidding. My passport is still old school (only 1/4 of us in the family has an e-passport and we're due for renewal next year), so we're still stuck with the lengthy queue and miserable gits until then. I couldn't believe that they had four people working for the 4-5 planeloads that landed simultaneously. The line actually stretched from processing down the main corridor towards the gates. It wasn't even one of ABF's "strike" days. Good ol' Melbourne.

Gozit

Eek! If you are on Canadian passports I can tell you for sure that "wanting the new ePassports" is a valid reason for early renewal. I just did it, although my reason wasn't actually for the new passport.