AndreaL Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 I applied December 20ish online, wrote the test on 9 February and had my ceremony yesterday ( beat ya Hansaplease). We received the lovely certificate, the pledge we recited and a souvenir $1 coin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrea_vk Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 And the final update - I received my retention of citizenship letter yesterday from Home Affairs and I have my Australian Citizenship Ceremony tomorrow night!A summary:Applied for retention in October 2011Applied for Citizenship December 2011Wrote Citizenship Test January 2012Received Retention Letter from Home Affairs March 2012 (yes, 5 months for a letter)Citizenship Ceremony March 2012Hope this helps those who are in the process.And I guess the answer to the question: Is it possible to have South African, British and Australian Citizenship at the same time, is a resounding YES! HansaCongratulations on your ceremony. I hope you enjoyed it.The question is did the Home Affairs letter had an expiry date?When you apply for retention did you have to remind them of your British passport?ThanksAndrea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Thanks andrea... the ceremony is tonight.I didn't notice an expiry date but will check. Yes, there is a question on the application form about what other nationalities you have and how you got them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rozellem Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 I have now lost/misplaced my letter of retention of citizenship. What a mission! Because it was given to me in early 2007, it is possibly in their archive in London. Are you serious!? All very vague and the staff very sleepy (at 9am) and unhelpful. As requested, I have now sent a letter asking nicely for them to have a look and if they find a copy to post it back to me (in the self addressed envelope supplied). We are eligible for Aus citizenship now and hope this careless mistake of mine wont hold things up too long. I still had it in Nov last year and suspect I stupidly sent the original in with my boys forms when I got them RSA passports and birth certs (this took just over 4 months to get via Canberra). If anybody have any bright ideas on how I could get a copy of this letter sent to me, I am all ears. Funny how they can not just locate me on their computer system, see that I have retention of citizenship and email me a copy. That would be waaaaay to simple, wouldn't it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fab365 Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 How do you go about renewing your SA passport when in Aus?When we applied for PR - we did not want to wait and my wife still had her old maiden name passport. The VISA is now , I assume, "linled" to that passport - and I do not want to now apply for a passport in her married name..Can these activities be undertaken in Aus with the High Commission? I.e. Renewal and approval for new passport?Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicse Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 There is no expiry date in the dual citizenship permission letter. In the past, you used to have to get a letter which stated you had permission to use xyz foreign passport, this letter was valid for 5 years at a time. There was no dual citizenship letter until recently.With the change in the citizenship act in 2005 I think, this requirement for this letter fell away and you can no longer get these letters. When I was renewing my passport while in London, I produced this old letter as evidence of having being granted dual citizenship and there were no issues and my passport was renewed successfully.So keep these letters safe as it avoids a million questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Tanne Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 After reading through all 8 pages of this thread, I finally seem to have found some answers on the second last post. I should start at the end and work my way backwards. hehehehe.HansPlease,I notice from your updated timeline that you applied for Aus citizenship, and wrote the test before receiving the retention of SA citizenship letter back from SA.I thought that this was not allowed, and that I had to wait for the retenshion letter from SA before I could apply for Aus citizenship. (I sent in my request to Canberra on 30 January)So can I submit my application for Aus citizenship right away, sit the test when I can, but just postpone the ceremony until after I have received the retention letter back from SA?I also have some other questions from others that have been through the process.I see that they are relatively fast in processing the Aus citizenship applications and getting a test date. I have also been told that they only have citizenship ceremonies twice a year. Is this true? Can anyone confirm how often they have citizenship ceremonies.Once you have been through the citizenship ceremony, how long before you can apply for an Australian passport.I ask all these questions because I plan to travel out of Australia at the end of December, and would prefer to do it on an Australian passport. I have 9 months to get everything completed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 Ok, here goes... - Yes, you can apply for AUS citizenship before you apply for retention, but you cannot attend your ceremony before receiving your approval of retention letter. I emailed the SA high commission in Canberra and they confirmed this. - I'm not sure where you live, but there should be more than just two opportunities a year to attend a ceremony. Your local council does the ceremony so it would depend on how often they have one. That being said, when I applied for citizenship in Melbourne city, they said that If my local council does not have one soon enough, they could add me to one of the regular ceremonies that they have in the city. Moral of the story is- the further out you are, the less frequent they have them, but there's always the option of a city ceremony...- I had my ceremony last night, I applied for my passport today. I need to travel in 2 weeks time. The minute you get your certificate at your ceremony, you can apply for a passport... Hope this helps.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Tanne Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 Thanks Hansa mate,Thats great news. I have all my Au citizenship forms ready to go in, but never sent them is as I was waiting for the letter from SA. Now I can send them in.As for the ceremonies, I checked and they have them in my area every second month at the town hall, so all is good there too. (I am in SE Suburbs in VIC, and fall into the Glen Eira council.Finally, I thought that the actual certificate, I was not aware that you get it immediately at the ceremony after the pledge. That is also great news as i thought I would then have to wait for that too.Thanks for the advice mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candivw Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 We have decided to not retain our citizenship in RSA. But now my question is we left on a 457 and got granted PR here last year, next year we apply for citizenship so once we have it do we let RSA know we are now formally immigrated so we can travel back on oz passport? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 No problem at all Dan Tanne - good luck! I'm hoping I haven't hit a snag with my passport application... I applied this morning and they said that I needed a document (birth certificate) that shows my place of birth in order to apply for a passport. Thing is, in my 32 years on this planet, I've never needed it, so don't even know where it is. Probably in SA with my parents, if it even still exists. Anyway, I did a declaration that I don't have my birth certificate, but "here's my british passport, which shows my place of birth..." apparently it's up to them whether they accept it or not. The nervous wait begins! I need to fly to New Zealand in 2 weeks time, and if I can't get my passport, then I've blown a lot of money on a trip that I can't go on... Anybody know how long it takes to get a SA birth certificate from Aus? I'm assuming a year, judging by our slow friends at home affairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superkruz Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Here is a question.... does this letter granting dual citizenship from SA expire at all? Is it something we could apply for way ahead of time? I am just thinking we do not want to have this kind of drama and my hubby is still hooked on retaining SA citizenship as well. Yes you can apply at anytime for retention of SA citizenship. I applied for mine within weeks of arriving in Australia, ie a few years before getting Aussie citizenship. I just figured that I would get it over and done with before they change the rules about citizenship retention.My letter does not have an expiry date but i have read of one person that did have a 5 year expiry date on their letter - very rare indeed, but it has happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
21yearsoutofrsa Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 We have decided to not retain our citizenship in RSA. But now my question is we left on a 457 and got granted PR here last year, next year we apply for citizenship so once we have it do we let RSA know we are now formally immigrated so we can travel back on oz passport?Don't see why you should. It's South African law that deprives you of South African citizenship, they need to live with the admin. But if you do visit RSA the landing card will ask where you are born. If the answer is South Africa the passport control guy MAY ask you why you have not produced your RSA passport. If so you now have the choice of been polite, or rude about RSA law that deprived you of your citizenship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superkruz Posted March 26, 2012 Report Share Posted March 26, 2012 so once we have it do we let RSA know we are now formally immigrated?Even if you emigrate officially you will still have your South African citizenship.If you want to get rid of your SA citizenship you can simplyLodge form BI-246 with Home Affairs, orJust become Australian citizens without letting any government department in SA know about it (ie just do nothing). According to the SA law, you would then automatically lose your SA citizenship. I am not sure how Home Affairs would know to take your citizenship away if you never notify them, but that is the way the law reads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SANZOZ Posted March 26, 2012 Report Share Posted March 26, 2012 Yes you can apply at anytime for retention of SA citizenship. I applied for mine within weeks of arriving in Australia, ie a few years before getting Aussie citizenship. I just figured that I would get it over and done with before they change the rules about citizenship retention.My letter does not have an expiry date but i have read of one person that did have a 5 year expiry date on their letter - very rare indeed, but it has happened.Thanks Superkruz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansaPlease Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 No problem at all Dan Tanne - good luck!I'm hoping I haven't hit a snag with my passport application... I applied this morning and they said that I needed a document (birth certificate) that shows my place of birth in order to apply for a passport. Thing is, in my 32 years on this planet, I've never needed it, so don't even know where it is. Probably in SA with my parents, if it even still exists.Anyway, I did a declaration that I don't have my birth certificate, but "here's my british passport, which shows my place of birth..." apparently it's up to them whether they accept it or not.The nervous wait begins! I need to fly to New Zealand in 2 weeks time, and if I can't get my passport, then I've blown a lot of money on a trip that I can't go on...Anybody know how long it takes to get a SA birth certificate from Aus? I'm assuming a year, judging by our slow friends at home affairs.Panic over. My passport arrived today. My British passport (and declaration) was enough to prove where I was born. Can't wait to test-drive my passport in New Zealand the week after next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Tanne Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 Nice mate.Enjoy New Zealand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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