Sunnyskies Posted April 21, 2013 Report Share Posted April 21, 2013 (edited) Question to those who have dual citizenship. How long did it take for you to get approval from SA Department of Home Affairs for dual citizenship?We applied at the end of January together with the renewal of our children's passports. Got the new passports within 6 weeks but still no sign of the consent for dual citizenship Edited April 21, 2013 by Sunnyskies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OubaasDik Posted April 21, 2013 Report Share Posted April 21, 2013 'bout two months ......Looking back on it, I think it was a mistake .....Should've cut the umbilical.Now if I go back to SA and end up in jail (for some reason), Aus won't go to bat for me, because I also an SA citizen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanieR Posted April 21, 2013 Report Share Posted April 21, 2013 Personally I am glad we did it and it is so easy. Important is to do it prior to obtaining your Australian Citizenship. Took us less than 2 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sianvz Posted April 21, 2013 Report Share Posted April 21, 2013 Are there separate requirements for dual and multiple citizenship? I've already got letter for dual citizenship from many many years ago for permission to have SA and UK passporta...so do I apply for approval for multiple citizenship when the time comes in a few years that we become Oz citizens or am I automatically allowed third citizenship because I have that letter already?If anything changes before then, I would DEFINITELY give up my SA citizenship over British if I'm forced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunnyskies Posted April 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2013 Hi SIanvz, you will need another approval to take a third citizenship.OBD, we thought about that but I've read that SA still treats you as one of their own irrespective if you get into trouble there. My family in SA also got really upset when I suggested just abandoning my SA citizenship when I was ranting on Skype a week ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizmo Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 We applied more than 6 months ago... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 so do I apply for approval for multiple citizenship when the time comes in a few years that we become Oz citizens or am I automatically allowed third citizenship because I have that letter already?.I've now got 3 citizenships. The letter only applies to the one application so you have to apply for a new retention letter each time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 PS: My retention letter took about 2 months. Although I applied in Canberra, the application makes it's way over to Pretoria by snail mail in the diplomatic bag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunnyskies Posted April 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 We applied more than 6 months ago...So are you just going to let it lapse on 1 May when you get your Aussie citizenship? Have you phoned the High Commission? I haven't yet, as they said don't contact them for 3 months. So I'm giving them until the end of the month. We haven't applied for our Aussie citizenship yet, as we wanted to make sure we had the consent first, as we thought the Aussie's may be a bit quicker to sort out our citizenship than the South African's have been about approving dual citizenship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunnyskies Posted April 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 HansaPlease, on 22 Apr 2013 - 12:21, said:PS: My retention letter took about 2 months. Although I applied in Canberra, the application makes it's way over to Pretoria by snail mail in the diplomatic bag.Yes, I initially got hopeful as they seemed to have managed to get the passport renewals done quite quickly with the same snail mail diplomatic bag! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sianvz Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 Thanks guys! Might get back to this topic in a few years when the time comes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OubaasDik Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 (edited) So are you just going to let it lapse on 1 May when you get your Aussie citizenship? Have you phoned the High Commission? I haven't yet, as they said don't contact them for 3 months. So I'm giving them until the end of the month.We haven't applied for our Aussie citizenship yet, as we wanted to make sure we had the consent first, as we thought the Aussie's may be a bit quicker to sort out our citizenship than the South African's have been about approving dual citizenship.I'd apply right now. You don't actually have the citizenship until you have the certificate in your sweaty little hand, so IF they want to put you through a ceremony, before the SA stuff arrives, tell them it's against your religion to do it on that day or something. There are enough different religions here that it's sure to be an inauspicious day in one of them ...... OK, I suppose that sounds insensitive, as if I would ever be that ...... but the idea is there. Edited April 22, 2013 by OubaasDik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OubaasDik Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 Hi SIanvz, you will need another approval to take a third citizenship.OBD, we thought about that but I've read that SA still treats you as one of their own irrespective if you get into trouble there. My family in SA also got really upset when I suggested just abandoning my SA citizenship when I was ranting on Skype a week ago.Well SA may want to treat you as one of it's own, but Aus won't just abandon you in a case where your only citizenship is Australian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 I'd apply right now. You don't actually have the citizenship until you have the certificate in your sweaty little hand, so IF they want to put you through a ceremony, before the SA stuff arrives, tell them it's against your religion to do it on that day or something.No need to lie, I applied for my citizenship and waited for my letter. They offered me the ceremony date and I told them the truth- that I had to wait for my retention letter before I could be naturalised. It wasn't an issue. In the end the letter turned up and I managed to make the original date for the ceremony anyway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunnyskies Posted April 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 Thanks guys, that sounds like a plan. Appreciate it.OBD, I was searching threads on this topic and found a post where someone had made enquiries of the Aussies' DFAT as to whether they would help someone with dual citizenship and the answer was definitely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gizmo Posted April 26, 2013 Report Share Posted April 26, 2013 So are you just going to let it lapse on 1 May when you get your Aussie citizenship? Have you phoned the High Commission? I haven't yet, as they said don't contact them for 3 months. So I'm giving them until the end of the month.We haven't applied for our Aussie citizenship yet, as we wanted to make sure we had the consent first, as we thought the Aussie's may be a bit quicker to sort out our citizenship than the South African's have been about approving dual citizenship.I was going to let it just lapse. I tried, but it wasn't meant to be - I would not have put off being a citizen here for the sake of keeping a citizenship to a country that I no longer live in. Citizenship in Australia is our main priority.BUT, as of yesterday, our letters arrived (just less than a week before we become Citizens!!!), so, I guess it was meant to be that we remain South African. ;-) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OubaasDik Posted April 26, 2013 Report Share Posted April 26, 2013 I was going to let it just lapse. I tried, but it wasn't meant to be - I would not have put off being a citizen here for the sake of keeping a citizenship to a country that I no longer live in. Citizenship in Australia is our main priority.BUT, as of yesterday, our letters arrived (just less than a week before we become Citizens!!!), so, I guess it was meant to be that we remain South African. ;-)Zuma must like you ...... There are a couple of reasons I wanted to retain the SA citizenship, but they aren't all that pressing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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