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The Australian Department of Home Affairs is responsible for the citizenship process in Australia. If you have applied for citizenship, the Department will:
- assess your application, including any documentation and citizen test results
- decide whether your citizenship will be approved
- notify you in writing to let you know if your citizenship has been approved
- allocate you to a local citizenship ceremony and send you an invitation to attend.
Citizenship ceremony allocations and invitations
The Australian Department of Home Affairs is responsible for allocating you a place at a citizenship ceremony and sending you an invitation to attend. While we coordinate and host citizenship ceremonies, Council does not have a role in the approvals, waitlists, or allocating candidates to specific citizenship ceremonies.
We are excited to welcome you as an Australian citizen to the City of Boroondara once you receive your invitation from the Department of Home Affairs.
You will receive your citizenship ceremony invitation from the Department of Home Affairs about 3 to 4 weeks before the ceremony you're allocated to attend.
If you have an urgent, compelling or compassionate need for Australian citizenship, you need to contact the Department of Home Affairs directly to make alternate arrangements to a Council citizenship ceremony. You can contact the Department of Home Affairs by calling their Global Service Centre on 131 881. More information is available on the Australian Department of Home Affairs website.
Wait times
There can be some time between when the Department of Home Affairs approve your citizenship application, and when they allocate you to a citizenship ceremony and send you an invitation. This can take between 3 and 6 months. Your citizenship ceremony information will be sent separately to the information you receive about your application being approved.
We have increased the size of our citizenship ceremonies and have added additional ceremony dates to try to reduce the amount of waiting time for residents of the City of Boroondara.
Given that your ceremony date is decided by the Department of Home Affairs, we are unable to provide you with more information about when you will be invited to a ceremony.
2025 ceremony dates and information
- Sunday 26 January
- Thursday 20 March (evening ceremony)
- Wednesday 30 April (morning ceremony)
- Tuesday 10 June (evening ceremony)
- Wednesday 23 July*
- Wednesday 20 August*
- Thursday 23 October*
- Tuesday 9 December*
*Ceremony time to be confirmed.
Ceremonies are held at Hawthorn Arts Centre, at 360 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. You can find out more about this venue on our Hawthorn Arts Centre page.
To register, you must bring your driver's licence, passport or an official document that includes a photograph. If an applicant was under 16 when their citizenship application was submitted, they will not have to provide identification.
If you have received your invitation to a Boroondara citizenship ceremony from the Department of Home Affairs, we will then send you more information about the ceremony. If you have questions about the ceremony, you can email [email protected] or call us on (03) 9278 4444.
More information
If you are interested in becoming an Australian citizen, please visit the Become an Australian Citizen page on the Australian Department of Home Affairs website.
If you would like to know about citizenship ceremonies, please visit the Citizenship ceremonies page on the Australian Department of Home Affairs website.
You can also call the Department of Home Affairs Global Service Centre on 131 881.