Big wait for new citizens

THE number of citizenship applications languishing in a queue has blown out to more than 200,000 and people are now being forced to wait almost 18 months to have their applications finalised.

Sources have told News Corporation that people who first lodged their applications 16 months ago, in April last year, are only now being interviewed by Immigration officials, and it’s estimated they would not get to a citizenship ceremony before early next year. The sources say that if a halt were placed on new applications today, it would take eight years to clear the backlog.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton oversaw the immigration process from December 2014 until last month. The number of citizenship applications awaiting adjudication jumped from just 22,952 in 2014-2015 to 242,606 in the financial year just gone.

The Government said the delays were a result a 176.9 per cent increase in applications since 2010-11 and an increased focus on integrity in assessing applications. A Department of Home Affairs spokesman said 150 extra staff were being hired.

Labor spokesman for citizenship, Tony Burke, disputed the massive spike in applications, saying that since the 2016 federal election there had been a 428 per cent increase in the queue, despite only a 21 per cent increase in the number of applications lodged.

“The only spike is in the queue of people in the black hole of the department,” Mr Burke said.