2.3.1 Decisions on citizenship status
Objective
- Provide high quality efficient administration of Australian citizenship law and policy.
Description
This output component involves managing and delivering decisions under the Australian citizenship legislation through:
- decisions on applications for grant of citizenship
- other decisions under the legislation, including citizenship by descent, resumption of citizenship, and renunciation of citizenship
- management of conferral of citizenship
- provision of citizenship information services.
Performance
In 2006-07 a record number of 160 086 decisions were made on applications for citizenship by grant, a 42 per cent increase from 2005-06. The number of applications approved increased by 39.6 per cent from 2005-06, continuing the upward trend in the number of decisions made since 2000-01.
The overall approval rate of applications for grant remained steady at 96.2 per cent in 2006-07. Sixty-eight per cent of applications were decided within 90 days of lodgement and 26.1 per cent were decided on the day of lodgement.
Appendix 6 contains statistical information on the former nationality or citizenship and the previous country of residence of persons who became Australian citizens by grant in 2006-07.
In 2006-07 the Citizenship Information Line (CIL) received 623 399 calls in 2006-07, an average of 51 950 calls per month. This compares to 520 127 calls in 2005-06, or an average of 43 344 calls per month. The CIL provides information in response to citizenship inquiries from across Australia and distributes information and application forms.
The department continued to monitor whether controls are operating effectively in citizenship application processing through its Citizenship Quality Assurance Programme. Initiatives undertaken in conjunction with other areas of the department to counter the risk of identity fraud and to support prosecutions for citizenship-related fraud reinforced the integrity of the citizenship programme.
In 2006-07 the Citizenship Helpdesk received 5693 enquiries from the department’s state and territory offices and overseas posts concerning matters of citizenship law and policy compared to 3035 in 2005-06, an increase of 87.5 per cent. It also received 4200 enquiries from other Australian Government agencies seeking verification of citizenship status, a 25.8 per cent increase (up from 3339). Most of the enquiries were responded to within two business days.