Strong growth in Australian citizenship

The number of migrants becoming Australian citizens continues to rise, with an 80 per cent increase in citizenship applications approved in 2018-19 compared to the previous financial year.

More than 145,000 migrants had their citizenship by conferral applications approved in 2018-19, up from 81,000 in 2017-18.

In addition to an 80 per cent increase in the number of people approved for Australian citizenship, the Government has also halved the time between an applicant attending a citizenship interview and the finalisation of their application.

Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs David Coleman said improvements such as encouraging online lodgements and increasing the efficiency of citizenship processing had contributed to the increase.

“Australian citizenship is an immense privilege, and fundamental to our national identity,” Mr Coleman said.

“I have been working over the past 12 months to ensure citizenship applications are managed as efficiently as possible, while also maintaining the integrity of the program.

“We have invested $9 million into our systems and staff, established a taskforce to focus on complex cases, and increased the number of citizenship appointments available for applicants to attend interviews and sit the citizenship test.

“This investment is having a significant impact and I am confident we will see further improvements over the next 12 months.”