With Brexit looming around the corner, new report released by Australia citizenship office, shows significant number of Britons have received Australian citizenship during the years 2018/19
What attracts Britons to Australia?
Over 700,000 British nationals visit Australia every year. Britons are attracted by the outdoor urban lifestyle, sunshine, strong economy and stable currency in Australia. Every year an estimated 30,000 of Britons emigrate to Australia in search for new opportunities. Brexit and political concerns in the UK have also influenced many wealthy britons move to US, Canada besides Australia. Australia has one of the highest property prices in the world.
In 2018-19, a total of 127,674 people became Australian citizens by conferral from at least 200 different countries.
Britons remain second in table after Indians, in acquiring Australian citizenship. More than 13,000 British nationals acquired citizenship in Australia during the last year.
| Number of people who acquired Australian citizenship via conferral, by top 10 nationalities (1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019) | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | No. of people |
| India | 28,470 |
| United Kingdom | 13,364 |
| Philippines | 9,267 |
| China* | 7,974 |
| Sri Lanka | 4,861 |
| Vietnam | 3,501 |
| Pakistan | 3,360 |
| Nepal | 3,294 |
| Iraq | 3,087 |
| South Korea | 3,062 |
| Other | 47,434 |
| Total | 127,674 |
*“China” denotes mainland China only and does not include the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
Source: Australia Home Affairs Office for Migration and citizenship
Australia Citizenship Applications
In August 2019 alone Australia received 11,300 conferral applications for citizenship.
This table shows how many applications pending on hand on 31 August 2019. The number includes children under 16 years old who were included in their parent’s application.
| Application type | Number of applications* |
|---|---|
| Australian citizenship by conferral (general eligibility and other situations) | 180,279 |
| Australian citizenship by descent | 2,277 |
| Evidence of Australian citizenship | 732 |
Source: Home Affairs office
This table shows time to process citizenship applications.
| Application type | Period counted | Timeframe for 75% of applications |
Timeframe for 90% of applications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian citizenship by conferral (general eligibility and other situations) |
From date of application to decision | 17 months | 19 months |
| From date of approval to ceremony | 5 months | 6 months | |
| From date of application to ceremony | 19 months | 22 months | |
| Australian citizenship by descent | From date of application to decision* | 47 days | 89 days |
| Evidence of Australian citizenship | From date of application to decision* | 6 days | 15 days |
* Allow an extra 10 days after approval of your application for printing and postage of your citizenship document. If you applied from outside Australia, postage will take longer.
Brexit
With Brexodus underway, there is sharp rise in number of Britons seeking citizenship in other countries, becoming dual nationals. Alternate citizenship is being highly sought by many britons as a backup plan.
In 2018, many EU member states (Germany, Ireland, France etc) reported surge in citizenship applications from Britons. Once the UK leaves EU on oct 31, with no deal, UK citizens will cease to be EU citizens and will be treated as third country nationals.
British Disapora
Emigrating Britons become diaspora population. The British diaspora consists of ethnic British people and their descendants who emigrated from the United Kingdom. The largest concentrations of people of self-identified British descent in the world outside of the United Kingdom and its Overseas Territories are found in
- New Zealand (59%),
- Australia (46%),
- Canada (31%),
- United States (11%)
- and parts of the Caribbean.
There are over 100,000 British expatriates living in Spain, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, France and Germany respectively
