Australian passports don't prove citizenship!

1points Posted 719 days, 18 hours ago by Bronwen

From today a new ruling has come in affecting applications for passport renewal. Where in the past, having an old passport was proof enough of citizenship, you now have to provide either your Australian birth certificate or proof of citizenship papers. If your old passport expired more than 12 months ago, then that is not proof enough of Australian citizenship.

So effectively the government is saying that its own passports do not prove you are an Australian citizen. It's madness.

Let me just share with you what I was told today in a bid to get a passport for an unexpected trip overseas next week. I have an old passport that expired a couple of years ago, but I've not had my citizenship papers for years (I had my passport, which I thought proved I WAS a citizen).

In order to get a passport under the new rules that came into effect from today (just my luck) I have to get proof of citizenship papers. This is the best bit - it will take four weeks to get them and eight weeks if I apply from WA (WTF). So effectively if you have been an Australian citizen for a number of years (it's been close to 14 for me) it will now take up to two months to get a passport renewed if you don't have your citizen documents. Chances are like me, many people don't have those documents once they get a passport. I was only ever asked to show them on my original passport application and since then I have never been asked to show them again (the passport proved I was a citizen).

Australians born here are also now affected, but you can walk into the relevent department and get a birth certificate that day.

Everyone I spoke to at DFAT, conceded it was a ridiculous situation. And yes, my holiday is looking less and less likely.

DFAT information here.

Comments

That is ridiculous.  I also don’t have proof of citizenship other than passport, there’s only a mention on the back of my dad’s certificate. And depending where in the world he is (ok, WA now, but was The Netherlands), would take a while to get to me.

You must be logged in to vote

If your passport has not expired in the past 12 months then you should be ok. But I’m guessing a lot of people like me, don’t think having a valid passport is a priority. If they are going to insist on citizenship papers then they have to speed up that process.

You must be logged in to vote

Hrm… my passport expired years ago. Thanks for this, Bron.

You must be logged in to vote

I’m going through the exact thing right now - but the difference is that I have a CURRENT passport…and I still have to go through this debacle. I’ve my fingers crossed that I’ll still be able to make it for our November overseas holiday although it’s looking more challenging as the day goes past!

You must be logged in to vote

Even an Australian birth certificate isn’t enough to prove you are an Australian citizen, that is if you were born after 1986!

My son who was born in ‘88, in Asutralia, has an Aussie birth certificate, myself, I have been here for 33 years, have an australian passport, all this isn’t accepted anymore as proof of Australian citizen.  So now, I have to dig out my Australian Citizenship certificate, issued in 1977, wonder where it could be!  If can’t be found, no passport for my Australian born son.  NIce1111  How absurd!!! 

You must be logged in to vote

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.


Subscribe to the PerthNorg RSS feed

Monday, 6th September 2010

Weather
°

About PerthNorg

A norg is about people powered news. Anyone can join and contribute to the news as a Cit J. Add your comments, share your stories, post your pics, submit links to interesting stories, upload your YouTube clips and vote for the stories you feel are important. Join up now.