My father has an Australian passport, and my mother is Egyptian .. passport help!

Question

I am 17 years old, and I want to have an Australian passport like my father, what should I do. My father says I got to go to Australia before I am 18 to get the citizenship, or is it easy for me to go to Australia and have my citizenship since my father is Australian?

Answer 1

You do not need to go TO Australia. Department of Immigration and Citizenship says you need to send in a form, your birth certificate with your dad's name, and a copy of his passport. I presume he has lived in Australia for more than 2 years in his whole life?

Answer 2

If you were born in Australia and your father was an Australian citizen at the time, you are already an Australian citizen.

If you were born overseas and your father was an Australian citizen at the time of your birth, you are eligible for citizenship by descent.

http://www.citizenship.gov.au/applying/c...

If your father wasn't a citizen when you were born, you will need to come to Australia and meet residency requirements before being granted citizenship.

If you're not eligible for citizenship by descent and must come to Australia, your father is partly correct in saying that you must come before you're 18. After the age of 18 (and before the age of 25), you must prove that you're fully dependent on him financially and you must also be a full time student.

Your father can apply on your behalf for a Child Visa (Offshore) (Subclass 101) or you can apply yourself, though he will still need to sponsor you.

This visa is a permanent visa that allows a child to travel to and remain in Australia, with their parent who is also their sponsor. The parent must be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen. If a Child visa is granted, the sponsor must provide support for the child, including accommodation and financial assistance required to meet the child's reasonable needs during their first two (2) years in Australia.

Sponsors must satisfy one of the following custody requirements when applying to sponsor children under 18 years of age:

They must have the sole legal right to determine where the child shall live, or to remove the child from their home country.

or

if another person can legally determine where the child can live, the sponsor must obtain a statutory declaration from this person or people, granting permission for the child to migrate.

or

they must possess a valid court order allowing them to permanently remove the child from the child's home country.

or

they must have a court order issued by the Family Court of Australia, and the grant of the visa must be consistent with that order.

You must be single. You must not be married, in a de-facto relationship or engaged to be married.

You must meet health and character requirements.

For all information, see:

http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/family/c...

Residency requirements for citizenship:

You must have been lawfully resident in Australia for four years immediately before applying including:

12 months as a permanent resident

and

absences from Australia of no more than 12 months, including no more than three months in the 12 months before applying.