From the beginning of the 2018-19 program year up to 30 April 2020 the total pass rate for those who sat the Australian citizenship test was a lofty 86 per cent. And while COVID-19 stopped citizenship interviews in many cities in Australia and in-person conferral ceremonies, over 200,000 people were granted Australian citizenship in the 2019-20 program year.

One of the many misconceptions about Australian permanent residence is that holding a permanent visa grants an automatic right for the visa holder to re-enter Australia indefinitely. All permanent visas allow the visa holder to remain in Australia permanently, not the right to re-enter. This is because permanent visas have a travel facility that ends 5 years from the date the person’s first permanent visa is granted.

Only Australian citizens have an automatic right to re-enter Australia. For the many migrants who settle in Australia permanently, the chance to take up Australian citizenship by conferral (application) is an offer they cannot refuse.

There are many good reasons to transition from Australian permanent residence to citizenship, including being allowed to return to Australia after unexpected long periods of absence, such as work or family commitments. Another benefit is accessing FEE-HELP, which are student loans for vocational or tertiary studies. Only Australian citizens, New Zealand citizens holding a Subclass 444 – Special Category visa, and permanent humanitarian visa holders are eligible.

One thing applicants need to be especially mindful of when considering applying for Australian citizenship is whether they will lose any rights associated with their current country of citizenship. Some nations do not allow dual citizenship.

Along with requiring to understand the nature of a citizenship application, most applicants who are between the ages of 18 and 60 must also demonstrate they have a basic knowledge of the English language, and have adequate knowledge of Australia and the privileges and responsibilities of Australian citizenship. These requirements are encapsulated in the citizenship test.

There are a few exemptions to undertaking the citizenship test. Most published Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) decisions on refused citizenship applications involve applicants claiming they have either hearing or sight impairment, or have permanent or enduring physical or mental incapacity.

A recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request for citizenship test results show that the citizenship test pass rate is anything but low.

For the 2018-19 program year, of the 143,903 tests conducted, the number of passed Australian citizenship tests were 125,897, with 18,006 failed tests. The pass rate was 87.49 per cent and therefore the fail rate was 12.51 per cent.

For the 2019-20 program year up to 30 April 2020, of the 146,717 tests conducted, the number of passed Australian citizenship tests were 123,848, with 22,869 failed tests. The pass rate was 84.41 per cent and therefore the fail rate was 15.59 per cent.

Averaging the data over this period, the pass rate was 85.9 per cent and therefore the fail rate was 14.1 per cent.

Those that failed either did not have sufficient English to understand the questions or did not study the testable material provided in Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, the document provided by the Department of Home Affairs in many different languages.

Perhaps the only possible explanation for the disparity of over 3 per cent in the fail rate is that some may have lodged citizenship applications without the requisite English language ability on account that the test would be harder. This was proposed in October 2017 and it would have taken some time for citizenship applications lodged around that time to filter through to an interview and test.

One very important thing to note about this data, which is stated in the FOI disclosure, is that “the number of failed tests do not equate to the number of people who failed the test. Most applicants who fail the test go on to pass the test on subsequent attempts.”

What this means is simply that applicants who fail the citizenship test are sometimes afforded a further attempt in the same interview and subsequently passes. When this occurs, applicants can represent more than one test and therefore the number of failed tests does not equal the number of people who failed the test and interview.

It is encouraging to see that more tests were sat last program year than in 2018-19 even with two months remaining, and until the coronavirus suspended citizenship interviews and tests.

If approved, the last step for many is the citizenship ceremony and pledge of commitment. In-person citizenship ceremonies resumed in June 2020 for some states.

And despite COVID-19 dampening the numbers and ability to conduct large-scale ceremonies, in an announcement last week, the acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs confirmed 204,817 people were conferred citizenship in the 2019-20 program year, an all-time record and up 60 per cent from the previous program year. The biggest numbers of new Australian citizens last year came from India, the United Kingdom, then China.

The acting Minister also confirmed citizenship interviews have resumed in Perth and Sydney.

For some states such as Victoria who are going through a second lockdown, citizenship interviews and in-person citizenship ceremonies are unlikely to resume for quite some time.