New Australian Citizenship Requirements 2017

Changes to Australian Citizenship 2017

Many or most have heard the press releases about the changes to eligibility to Australian Citizenship By Grant. That is, the ability of migrants to Australian to take the plunge and become fully-fledged Australians themselves. The rules have changed, and short of press releases by Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton, everyone is largely in the dark. And this includes Down Under Visa clients and any of you in Australian Filipina relationships.

Reasons for Citizenship changes

I try hard to keep out of politics, especially with anything to do with Down Under Visa. Religion and politics are things that people hold close to their hearts. However despite overall political viewpoints and party loyalties, there is the politician with the best interests of their country and heart who plows ahead with policies they believe in, and there are those who act to make themselves more popular to prop up their apparent failure to impress the public.

This appears….in my humble opinion…..to be something to appeal to the lowest common denominator of the Australian psyche by playing the race card and the "jobs for Australians" card! I can't see any sound reason for any of this, apart from looking like the great patriot by cracking down on these migrants.

Again in my opinion, I would think that in an increasingly divisive world that getting stuck into those who have chosen to make Australia their home, achieves very little that is positive and good for the country. Yes, the ".…their takin' our jobs, an' they don' even speak Inggglish!" crowd may be impressed, but does alienating those spouses of Australian men and women, or those skilled professionals who have (and would have in the future) contributed to the advancement of the country really help? Is it going to make anyone feel a part of a country and a people who want them, and less likely to want to join ISIS? I doubt it!

But anyway……onto the changes!

The Citizenship changes, as we understand them

Three main areas of change:

• Residency requirement
• Integration into the Australian community
• Changes to the Citizenship test

Residency

Previously: 4 years in total, with 1 year as a permanent resident

New: 4 years as a permanent resident, with no idea on the total. For partner visas, obviously this will mean at least 6 years in total. Obviously disappointing to those who were ready and able to take the plunge already.

Integration into the Australian community

Needing to demonstrate integration into the Australian community: Employment, membership of community organisations, etc.: Sounds reasonable on the surface, but not everyone is overly extroverted. One wonders how fairly they will measure this?

English skills: This is a new one, and a really scary one. They have long used the IELTS system for assessing the English skills of those applying for employment-based visas, and I suspect they will use the same. Reading, writing, listening and speaking assessment!

Now, that might be fine for those in their 20's who grew up in Manila and were educated in private schools and had their tuition in English. But for a Filipina who is older and grew up in the provinces and had public school education? This could be a real struggle. If you were going to worry about any area in particular? This would be the one! If my wife weren't an Aussie Citizen already, I'd be making some moves to get her to start improving on those four areas. Accents, and getting "f" and "p" and "b" and "v" mixed up, and the "he" and "she"? Much of this will depend on the band-score that they end up setting for this.

Citizenship test

Maximum of three tries only: Scary prospect

Automatic refusal in cases of cheating: fair enough, I suppose

"More meaningful questions" to be included: I can still remember when this was first introduced, and had questions about Don Bradman and some snooker player. Fingers crossed on this one! And obviously native English speakers will be at an advantage, whereas those who are not….and again are older and/or less educated….will be at a distinct disadvantage, which the last time I looked had nothing to do with their value as human beings. Oh well!

So there you have it. This is what we know so far. Shall let you know when anything new comes to hand.