The number of migrants becoming Australian citizens has recorded a “significant” growth compared to last year, says the Department of Home Affairs, but a record number of applicants remain waiting as most citizenship applications take up to two years to process.
Minister for Immigration and Citizenship David Coleman said there was an 83 per cent increase in the number of citizenship applications processed in the last six months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017.
Between July and December last year, 72,647 citizenship applications were finalised compared to almost 40,000 during the same 2017 period when the total number citizenship approvals fell to a 15-year low of just over 80,000.
Out of the total applications processed this year, 64,015 have been approved, 4,155 were refused and the rest were found invalid or withdrawn.
Mr Coleman said the Department of Home Affairs set up a task force to focus on complex citizenship cases that were taking a long time to process. He said a $9 million investment was being made to recruit and train extra staff for efficient management of citizenship applications.
However, nearly 237,000 migrants are still waiting to pledge allegiance to Australia with the current waiting times stretching to 20-25 months. The backlog was nearly 81,000 in June 2017 and 90 per cent of the applications were processed in 13 months.
According to Department of Home Affairs figures supplied to SBS Punjabi, around 65,000 applications were received between July and December 2018, and a total 236,694 applications were in hand at the end of 2018.
