ptlabs

Definitely. Upping the residential period from 2 to 4 years won't really affect wannabe citizens who plan to reside in Australia indefinitely/long term.

However, introducing a sort of English language test and/or citizenship test might preclude people who don't have English skills and/or aren't willing/able to integrate into Australian mainstream society from successfully applying for citizenship.

Peter

sour kraut

Well, it might have an effect for instance, if you want to represent a sports team and need citizenship for that, and as you won't be able to compete with them, you won't be able to take part at all.
In 4 years you might be too old!

Alok

Will the new rules be applicable to PR's who have not validated their
visa ? I plan to travel for evidencing in the 1st week of february.

alok

ptlabs

The majority of PRs probably aren't aiming to represent Australia at the international level

Some sports allow permanent residents to represent their adopted countries, so you could always check with the appropriate governing body.

Peter

saraliz

FYI, the Citizenship Bill 2005 is currently being debated in the House of Representatives. You can find the Hansard for yesterday's debate here: http://www.aph.gov.au/Hansard/reps/dailys/dr311006.pdf (the debate starts on page 2 - (p19 of the .pdf file)).

Pollyana

Thanks for the link - a VERY interesting debate

comet555

Yes.. very interesting. With all the debate going on it certainly doesn't look like it will go through on January 27th as planned.

JAJ

Why not??

comet555

There was just a lot of opposition to the governments change from the agreed upon 3 years to 4. I'm not entirely sure about how the system works out there, but generally when there is a lot of opposition to parts of the bill then things don't get passed immediately.

comet555

What does everyone else think? Well... those that actually read most of the link.

Haley

JAJ

The government has a majority in both Houses ...

And although the Labor Party is not keen on the 4 years, they like other aspects of the Bill and say they won't oppose it in principle.

asaxena

Australian Citizenship Bill amendments tabled in Parliament
On 2 November 2006, the Australian Government tabled amendments to the Australian Citizenship Bill 2005 for consideration by Parliament.

The amendments included changes to the residence requirements for Australian citizenship announced by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Andrew Robb, on 17 September 2006.

The proposed residential requirements would not apply to people who become permanent residents before the new Act commences. They would only be required to meet the current two-year residential qualifying period provided they apply for citizenship within three years of commencement of the new Act.

Consideration by the Parliament of the changes to citizenship legislation currently before it is not now expected to be completed until at least the Autumn Sittings in 2007. Accordingly it is not expected that the new Act would come into effect before 1 July 2007.

Arvind

aussi110

Gr8 News before hearing Biggest 1(OZ visa)

jeeva

A year ago, the proposed date was like Jul-06, and then Jan-07, now it's Jul-07!

It was good news already that current PRs would not be affected by this new bill, but it now looks like I would complete the required 2-year residency even before the new rule commences. Oh well...

macker

Sorry, I'm just trying to get this straight in my head. We are hoping to be granted our 136 skilled Ind. in January 07. Are we then classed as permanent residents by our grant letter or do we have to enter Australia and validate the visa before we are classed as PR's???