Australia Citizenship
As an Australian permanent resident, you will not have all the rights an Australian citizen enjoys.
In most cases, we would recommend applying for Australian Citizenship as soon as you are eligible to do so. This is because your Australian permanent residence visa could be cancelled if DIMIA forms the opinion that you provided false information in your visa application, or if you have committed a serious crime which calls into question your good character. Once Australian citizenship is granted, it is very difficult for this to be revoked.
On 8 September 2005 the Australian Government announced a range of immigration legilslation changes designed to further enhance its counter-terrorism laws. The proposals included a number of changes to Australia’s citizenship legislation.
In summary the changes are:
extending the Australian citizenship residency requirement by 12 months to 3 years providing for security checking of Australian citizenship applications, so that they can be refused on security grounds extending revocation provisions for Australian citizenship to include serious criminal offences for offences committed in the period between approval of an application and acquisition of Australian citizenship
Timing of changes
The date of commencement for these changes to Australian citizenship will be finalised when the legislation is passed by Australian Parliament. At this point in time it is not possible to be definitive about a commencement date for the changes but it is highly unlikely that it will be before 1 July 2006.
Australian citizenship residency requirements:
The proposed change is to increase the current Australian citizenship residency requirement from 2 years to 3 years. Once the legislation has been amended an applicant for Australian citizenship will be required to be present in Australia as a permanent resident for a total of 3 years in the 5 years before making the Australian citizenship application. This includes a period of 1 year in the 2 years before the Australian citizenship application is made.
Security
A new provision will prohibit the approval of an Australian citizenship application if that person is identified as a risk to Australia’s security. The prohibition will apply to all applications for Australian citizenship, including applications for Australian citizenship by descent, Australian citizenship by conferral and applications for the resumption of Australian citizenship.
Revocation
The revocation provisions within Australian citizenship legislation will be extended. Under current legislation a person can have their Australian citizenship revoked if they committed a serious offence prior to being approved to become an Australian citizen, and are convicted for 12 months or more for that offence after lodging the Australian citizenship application. Going forward this provision will be extended to enable revocation for a serious crime committed at any time up until the person becomes an Australian citizen by making the pledge of commitment, provided that they are convicted for 12 months or more for that offence.