Six, nearly seven months, have passed since the Department of Immigration’s proposed citizenship and visa changes were announced. What felt like a tidal wave of changes were made public and shook every visa holder residing in Australia at the time, whether directly impacted or not.
While months have passed and opinions have been heard, a decision is set to be made by the Senate on Wednesday this week regarding the proposed Citizenship legislation.
The proposed bill was met with waves of acceptance and staid outcry in equal measure.
Back in March, when the multiple changes were announced, my partner and I were in the midst of a Permanent Residence application. It was daunting as we were unsure of what this meant or how it would impact our pending application and could only speculate about what might happen.
Peter Dutton’s recommended citizenship changes included a new English test, extending the PR requirement from one to four years, and testing Australian assimilation.
Twitter and Australian news publication Facebook pages were flooded with racial and xenophobic commentary. Users had no comprehension on the outlined changes, many not knowing that prior to this bill any person applying for citizenship had to have resided in Australia for FOUR years, with one year as a permanent resident. Instead, the majority were under an illusion and outraged that foreigners could land in Australia and become a citizen within one year. I may not hail from Australia but even I would be bewildered if such a situation were possible.
Trolls were aghast online that migrants were allowed entry with poor levels of English language and welcomed the change in testing. What many were unaware of was the level of testing; a test of that measure would fail many existing Australian Citizens and that to obtain residency an English test is typically required.
Thankfully our residency has since been granted. The day our application was approved was nothing but sheer joy and relief. While our journey had a joyous outcome, others have not been so lucky.
At the moment it is not known how the Senate will proceed with this legislation, regardless if it is passed or denied the decision must be respected and upheld. Moving forward my best advice to anyone with pending applications or visa woes would be to approach a registered migration agent, only trust official Department of Immigration updates, and stay away from Twitter or comment boards with uninformed users.
Eire in Aus 