Early this week, Acting Minister for Immigration Alan Tudge, released a statement announcing the return of in-person citizenship ceremonies as coronavirus cases continue to remain low across the country.

Citizenship ceremonies were moved online to keep to health restrictions, with over 25,000 applicants becoming Australian citizens through this unique method.

Now, councils have the choice to conduct services face-to-face, online, or both, ensuring that face-to-face ceremonies are in line with the public gathering restrictions imposed in each respective state or territory. For councils that cannot host physical events safely or if applicants cannot attend, the online method can take place in these cases.

Citizenship testing and interviews are also in the process of resuming in the coming weeks, Mr Tudge outlined in his statement.

“Australian citizenship is fundamental to our national identity. More than 179,000 people have been conferred Australian citizenship this financial year. This is up 56 per cent on the same period last year.” – Alan Tudge (Acting Minister for Immigration)

Processing times however are still significantly delayed from citizenship related appointments prior to the pandemic being put on hold. As much as 80,000 applicants are still awaiting citizenship.

For further information or help with citizenship-related questions please contact our friendly migration agents Melbourne.

Image attribution: DIAC images / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)