Australian Citizenship Laws undergone recent changes for International Migrants!
Immigrants residing in Australia with an aspiration of becoming Australian Citizen will be required to take an independent English language test prior applying for Australian citizenship from now onwards. Due to the recent changes in the Australian citizenship Laws which took place in the parliament on Thursday, fresh applicants will be required to prove the language proficiency under various level of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
However, the level of proficiency will be decided by the immigration minister itself.
Applicants who can take exemption from this rule must be aged 60 plus or 16 below along with people having hearing, speech, sight impairments or permanent physical or mental disability.
As per the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, “English language was essential to economic participation and social cohesion,” and due to which this new changes have been applied.
He also added that, “There is also strong public support to ensure aspiring citizens are fully able to participate in Australian life by speaking English, our national language.”
The major change took place under this recent reform is the minimum time period of permanent residency in Australia one must have to be eligible for Australian Citizenship.
This time is now changed from a time period of 1 year to 4 years, along with the new examinations and tougher character assessment.
Eligible candidates will also be required to state the incorporation into the community, by “acting in a manner compatible with Australian values”.
Additional changes include:
- The ‘pledge of commitment’ is now renamed to the ‘pledge of allegiance’.
- Individuals rejected by the minister for Australian citizenship on the basis other than not fulfilling the eligibility, will be banned for 2 years from Australia.
- It is a must that the applicants should hold a good character in order to be eligible for Australian citizenship.
Mr. Dutton, further said that, “This Immigration Minister Peter Dutton
New law will help in maintaining the strong public support for immigration and the Australian citizenship values in an increasingly challenging national security environment.”
For more updated news and to be in touch with the latest changes of immigration world, stay tuned with Make Visas.
GET YOUR FREE AUSTRALIA VISA ASSESSMENT FROM OUR IMMIGRATION EXPERTS