When a parent wishes to come or migrate to Australia it is necessary to obtain a Visa in order to do so, and it is called a parent visa. Of course that parent needs to have either a stepchild, adopted child, or natural child be either a settled eligible or settled permanent inhabitant of either Australia or New Zealand.

Further the applicants need to have at least ½ of their children permanently living in Australia, and have more of their children living in Australia than in other countries. Read the full story

Article Popularity: 1%

For those migrants who call Australia home, becoming an Australian Citizen is something that many aspire to.

As well as being able to call yourself a real Aussie, for migrants there’s also the added benefit of being able to come and go as you please without having to reapply for entry into Australia after the initial period allocated by your Visa class has elapsed.

Since October 2007, a ‘citizenship test’ has had to be taken as part of the process to gain Australian citizenship and the questions within the test have had raised quite a few eye brows ever since it’s release.

Many of the questions were of a very General nature and some people taking the test weren’t particularly enamoured by the fact that certain questions could influence their chances of becoming an Australian.

A couple of the questions that spring to mind include such classics as: Read the full story

Article Popularity: 10%

Once you finally made it down under the next thing that many folks will want to do is gain their Australian Citizenship so that they can become a ‘real aussie’

Getting Australian citizenship has recently got a little harder, not only do you need to be a permanent Australian resident for four years instead of two, from the 1st of October 2007 you also need to take the Australian citizenship test.

To help support this, The Australian citizenship website has launched a number of resources that will help those in preparing for and taking the new test.

The first is a new resource book

The resource book, creatively titled; ‘Becoming an Australian Citizen‘, is supposed to help you prepare for the citizenship test. Read the full story

Article Popularity: 6%

According to a story over at News.com.au, migrants to Australia will now have to wait at least four years before becoming Australian citizens.

This is under a Federal Government proposal expected to be announced today.

They will also have to take an English language test – failure to past the test would also stop them becoming Australian citizens.

The measures will be listed in a discussion paper to be released by Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration Andrew Robb.

Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday the English language requirements feature “prominently” in the package.

“I am keen on everybody learning the English language as soon as possible,” he said. “It is absolutely essential.”

It is understood the proposals also include an increase in the waiting period for people to become citizens from three years to four years.

The requirement was last year raised from two to three years in an attempt to contain the home-grown terror threat. At that time, then citizenship minister John Cobb said the longer migrants spent in Australian society before gaining citizenship, the less vulnerable they were to “falling in with extreme groups”.

He said the extra time would allow migrants to “get a job, make mates and go to the pub”.

Personally, this doesn’t bother me. I’ve always struggled to get my head around those people who migrate to Australia with the sole intention of getting their Australian Citizenship and then coming back to the UK.

I’ve never quite followed the logic with this but can only assume that folks come back to the UK, work the rest of their working life here and then bugger on back to Australia to retire.

For us, were in it for the long haul.

Although having an Australian Passport will be great, 3 4 or 5 years doesn’t really make that great a difference.

We’ve already spent three years getting to the place where we are now, another few years won’t make to much difference!

They will have also have to take an English language test – and failure would stop them becoming Australian citizens

Article Popularity: 3%