What type of Australian Citizen am I?

Question

I was adopted from South Korea by 2 Australian parents in 1983 and acquired citizenship in 1985. Does that make me a citizen by 'Decent' or 'Conferral' or what? There is nothing on my certificate of citizenship that says what type it is.

Answer 1

Someone like you in US would be called naturalized citizen.I guess it's call the same in Australia. You have all the rights and obligations as everyone else.

Answer 2

Conferral is when your biological parents lost their Australian citizenship when they took on another nationality (before 2002 Australia didn't allow for dual nationality and anyone who obtained a second nationality by naturalization or marriage automatically lost their Australian). When the 2002 rules came in allowing dual nationality it ruled that those (and their descendants) who had lost their Australian citizenship through no fault of their own could regain it if they wished.

You would be either Australian by naturalization (because you're not born Australian) or Australian by Descent or in a similar category to Australian born citizens.

I would say you're more similar Australian by birth/naturalization because while you're born overseas you're probably legally adopted which means you have an Australian birth certificate and similar rights to Australian born children.

Your Australian Citizenship Certificate usually states what kind of citizenship it is. It will usually say "Australian Citizenship by Descent" or "Australian Citizenship". I believe Australian Citizenship by Conferral falls into a similar category as Descent.

http://www.citizenship.gov.au/_pdf/aci/c...

Answer 3

The fact that you were adopted in 1983 and did not acquire your citizenship until 1985, implies that your citizenship is by conferral. In any case, I don't think it is significant as all Australian citizens are equal.

Your situation is described on the following page of our citizenship site:

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