We have our citizenship interview booked for the 24th of April. I have read through the blurb on the citizenship website about the rights and responsibilities as an Aussie citizen. I think that is all the preparation we need to do, other than sort the paperwork we have to take with us.

I was wondering how other people had found their interview. Was it pretty relaxed? or more of a grilling?

Fairly relaxed - I knew all my rights and responsibilities off by heart but interviewer gave hubby a quick prompt at one point

Very very helpful guy we had in sorting out son aged 16 to have ceremony at same time.

Paperwork is possibly the most important thing as well as the criminal record check they do.

Enjoy

Just out of interest, how long does it take from the moment one is legally able to apply for citizenship until one can have a new shiny australian passport?

Thanks

Two variables:

1. how long to DIAC take to process your application; then
2. how long does it take your council to invite you to a ceremony.

Each step takes between 1-3 months in most cases. Most people, therefore become citizens in 3-6 months from application.

However some do have to wait longer. All the current publicity of citizenship has anecdotally caused more applications and hence some longer waiting times. Also, not all councils take their responsibilities to organise citizenship ceremonies as seriously as they should.

As soon as you have attended your citizenship ceremony and made the Pledge of Commitment you are an Australian citizen. Not before, however.

You can apply for an Australian passport as soon as you are a citizen. Processing time around 10-15 days normally.

Thanks Jaj

Thanks for your replies.

While on the subject of passports maybe someone can answer this question. Does becoming an Aussie citizen cancel out a permanent residency visa, meaning that an Aussie passport would be needed to reenter Australia?

yes precisely, your PR visa is no longer relevant, you will need an Australian passport instead

Thanks for your prompt reply. That is helpful to know.

JAJ, a quick question. I'd like to do the Citizenship ceremony at the main event in Perth on Australia day next year. I live in Kalamunda which is a separate shire from Perth city. Do I have to do the ceremony in my 'home' shire or can I do it in Perth?

I didn't have time to draw breath after the questions were asked before a 'cheat sheet' was produced from under the desk and I was told the answers to the questions.

Obviously they had marked my card from the outset.

We were asked our rights and responsibilities, brief chat, easy peasy.

Our interview was September 2006, recieved confirmation of being successful in November 2006 and our citizenship ceremony was March 2007.

You can opt to have your ceremony in a different shire, I asked the dept, as we needed our citizenship by end of March this year and at one point it looked like we might not get it, so they suggested we go to Townsville for ours, if we wanted an earlier ceremony but didn't need to in the end.

Thanks for that. Australia day 2008 in Perth for me.

we had a strange interview.
Hubby is half English/half Vietnamese, but only speaks English and only had British nationality (until we got the Aussie one as well).

The heavily accented Indian-heritage interviewer only asked questions of hubby not me (white, Welsh) and bombarded him- seemed to think his English might be not fluent!
Very wierd! Still we did not fail...

Thanks for all your replies, it would seem that the interview isn't too much of a big deal as long as you can speak English. I was worried my mind would go blank when I got into the interview room, but if they prompt you that should not be a drama. Thanks again.

Katie

We found the whole process really easy. We filled the online application form in on 18th March and had our interview on 24th March. By 27th march we'd received letters confirming our application had been approved.

The interview itself was really straightforward. Mr GG and I were interviewed seperately, but the applications linked, so we'll be going to the ceremony at the DIAC offices in Sydney together (we were told it would be in 2/3 months' time).

They just checked our documents, did a police check, asked us about the rights and responsibilities (I got them the wrong way around ) and that was it. Whole process (including queueing - they were stoopidly busy, even on a Saturday morning) took about 20 minutes.