It has become easier for New Zealanders to become Australian citizens
April 24, 2023 12:56 AM Subscribe
Federal government makes Australian citizenship easier for Kiwis to obtain. Ahead of a visit by New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, Anthony Albanese unveils a new direct pathway to citizenship that will make it easier for about 350,000 Kiwis living in Australia to vote and receive government benefits.
This directly affects me and it’s going to save so much money. I’m eligible to apply for permanent residency in a couple of ways but one was going to cost about $8000 (marriage visa) and the other about $5000 (NZ only skilled visa). Now with this pathway direct to citizenship, it will cost about $500 and I won’t have to undergo medical checks etc.
This is going to change lives for the better for kiwis who have grown up in Australia. It’s actually affordable and it means they will have access to Centrelink benefits and higher education loans among other things. And possibly stop deportations back to country they have no ties to.
Covid showed us just how little the previous government cared about non citizens, so I’ll be taking this opportunity to get citizenship, just in case the tide turns if the coalition get back into power.
posted by poxandplague at 2:27 AM on April 24, 2023 [16 favorites]
This is going to change lives for the better for kiwis who have grown up in Australia. It’s actually affordable and it means they will have access to Centrelink benefits and higher education loans among other things. And possibly stop deportations back to country they have no ties to.
Covid showed us just how little the previous government cared about non citizens, so I’ll be taking this opportunity to get citizenship, just in case the tide turns if the coalition get back into power.
posted by poxandplague at 2:27 AM on April 24, 2023 [16 favorites]
Good, next job stop punitively deporting NZ citizens who lack Aus passports (also true of every other nationality, but the NZ arrangement should be so easy).
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 2:34 AM on April 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 2:34 AM on April 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
I’m eligible to apply for permanent residency in a couple of ways but one was going to cost about $8000
I'd like to point out that $8,000 for a marriage visa is a fucking criminal amount to pay and I'm not looking forward to it if/when we move back to Australia.
Nine fucking years of xenophobic coalition government at work.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:32 AM on April 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'd like to point out that $8,000 for a marriage visa is a fucking criminal amount to pay and I'm not looking forward to it if/when we move back to Australia.
Nine fucking years of xenophobic coalition government at work.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:32 AM on April 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
next job stop punitively deporting NZ citizens who lack Aus passports
Already done, although I'm concerned that it's in the form of a 'directive' rather than anything binding.
The article says that this is a reversal of the 'Howard government's decision in 2001 to establish a new "Special Category" visa for New Zealanders in Australia', but I don't think that's completely true. The Special Category visa is what New Zealanders have always had access to and all arrivals were granted this visa automatically on arrival in Australia. When I first arrived in Australia in 1977 I was issued this visa and it was stamped in my passport.
Although it wasn't mandatory to get your passport stamped, we requested it so we had clear proof of when we arrived. In 2001, the Howard government changed the way holders of that visa were treated for immigration purposes, meaning they were no longer automatically eligible for citizenship, but had to go through one of the other pathways. This mostly impacted people over 40 or so, who found themselves ineligible for any migration pathway because of their age (anyone over 40 wasn't eligible for a skilled pathway, the most common one used at the time). Fortunately for me, that change wasn't retrospective so I was still eligible for citizenship BECAUSE I could prove via the stamp in my passport when I arrived and because I arrived after the Howard government's changes, which were also somewhat hand-wavey in their legality. I finally got around to becoming a citizen in 2021.
Anyway, this is great news and very much reflects the relationship Aussies and Kiwis have always had, except when it comes to sport.
posted by dg at 9:25 PM on April 25, 2023
Already done, although I'm concerned that it's in the form of a 'directive' rather than anything binding.
The article says that this is a reversal of the 'Howard government's decision in 2001 to establish a new "Special Category" visa for New Zealanders in Australia', but I don't think that's completely true. The Special Category visa is what New Zealanders have always had access to and all arrivals were granted this visa automatically on arrival in Australia. When I first arrived in Australia in 1977 I was issued this visa and it was stamped in my passport.
Although it wasn't mandatory to get your passport stamped, we requested it so we had clear proof of when we arrived. In 2001, the Howard government changed the way holders of that visa were treated for immigration purposes, meaning they were no longer automatically eligible for citizenship, but had to go through one of the other pathways. This mostly impacted people over 40 or so, who found themselves ineligible for any migration pathway because of their age (anyone over 40 wasn't eligible for a skilled pathway, the most common one used at the time). Fortunately for me, that change wasn't retrospective so I was still eligible for citizenship BECAUSE I could prove via the stamp in my passport when I arrived and because I arrived after the Howard government's changes, which were also somewhat hand-wavey in their legality. I finally got around to becoming a citizen in 2021.
Anyway, this is great news and very much reflects the relationship Aussies and Kiwis have always had, except when it comes to sport.
posted by dg at 9:25 PM on April 25, 2023
Oops, ' I arrived after the Howard government's changes' should be 'before the Howard government's changes', obviously.
posted by dg at 10:48 PM on April 25, 2023
posted by dg at 10:48 PM on April 25, 2023
« Older The student ordered her own snake, even after I... | A new obsession, a centuries-old game. Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by y2karl at 1:31 AM on April 24, 2023 [2 favorites]