karlos

Hope someone can help. My wife and daughter are due to have their citizenship ceremony at the local council in October. My daughter will be 8 months old. Does she (my daughter) have to attend? If not, does she have to be in the country? (I was planning on taking her to visit relatives overseas).

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers

JAJ

Wife needs to attend but daughter (aged under 16) does not.

karlos

Thanks for the info. I've just downloade the guidlines for the citizenship ceremony which has useful info on this.

Do you know if there is an issue with her being overseas at the time of the ceremony? I've tried searching round on the citizenship website, but can't seem to find anything. If not I'll give the citizenship helpline a call.

Cheers.

JAJ

Wrong information. Section 26 of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 states that children under 16 do not need to make the Pledge of Commitment to become Australian citizens.

And section 28 of the Act states that a child under 16 included on the application of a responsible parent becomes a citizen when the parent does.

Adult applicants normally need to be onshore when their application is approved (not the same as a citizenship ceremony date). But this does not apply to children.

Daughter becomes an Australian as soon as the responsible parent takes the Pledge of Commitment to Australia. The parent will receive the child's citizenship certificate at the same time.

As soon as the child is an Australian citizen, either an Australian passport or an Australian Declaratory Visa in a foreign passport, is required to re-enter Australia. It might be necessary to contact an Australian mission overseas.

karlos

Great. Thank you very much for the information Jeremy.