This article will let you know the techniques I used to prepare the Australian Citizenship test and get it passed in 1 week.
2019 is my 10th year of moving to Australia. Before that I have accomplished my degree of Information Technology at the University of Queensland and worked as full time software developer after graduation.
In 2018, the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection sent me an email and informed me my Permanent Residence Visa (Subclass 189) will be expired very soon (end of Nov 2018), and I can either choose to extend the current visa or became an awesome Australian citizen. Aussie? Why not. Here is what I did:
Step 0. Check your eligibility before you apply
Different people might have a slightly different background, use the following url to check whether you are eligible for applying Australia Citizen:
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/become-a-citizen/permanent-resident#Eligibility
Step 1. Lodge an application at https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/
Thanks to the immigration online system, the application is straight forward. But I saw there are quite lot of people paying some agent to do the application, which is totally UNNECESSARY, in the end it will be yourself to provide those information and documents. Just some basic information about yourself and your current status, including:
- Addresses lived in the Australia in the last few years. Provide as much as you can
- Current nationality and passport
- Information about your family
- In the end, you will be asked to provide a list of documents such as birth certificate, driving license, bank statement if you have any
After submission, it will take a couple of months for the Department of Immigration to process your application, sometime it is shorter or longer, it might vary to different people.
Step 2. Prepare before attend the test
About 5 months later, I received an email (see above) from the Australian Department of Immigration that now I can attend the Australian Citizenship test. The test I have done is at Brisbane and passed with 95%. I am so surprise there are still thousands of people failed the tests according to SBS.com.au and government statistics.
Over 1400 people failed the citizenship test multiple times in 2017-18.
The whole test is about 2 parts:
- Interview
- Citizenship question test
For interview, to be honest, there is NO interview. In other words, the interview might not be like you think. You don't have to sit down besides the table with a formal interview with the officer. It is just simple dialog such as how long have you been Australia, what do you do for a living or do you have any family/friends living in Australia at the moment.
For Citizenship question test, unfortunately there is NO official practise system at the moment except one PDF (our-common-bond.pdf) doc provided. Many people suggested you should spend some time on this booklet and get yourself familiar with the content. Which sounds right in some level. But I won't recommend you to do that, Why? As it is a 20-questions test, or if you just want to pass the test and really don't have too much time on preparing it. I will let you know some techniques I used in the next section.
I am living in Brisbane, and this is my website. I really hope this article can help many other people like me who apply the Australia Citizenship. Please leave a comment here at the bottom of this article.
Some Techniques to help you get the test passed
To those whom are really busy and want to pass the test within limited time, here is what I did.
First download the our-common-bond.pdf, there are 5 parts in this booklet but only the first 3 parts need our attention. All the test questions are created based on the first 3 sections. At the end of the each section, there are some testing sample questions, make sure you finish all of them.
Secondly Search online and find out there are some unofficial Australian Citizenship Practise website. I have tried most of them (>500 questions), unfortunately some of those questions are wrong and outdated, most of them are duplicated. So I keep the valid and latest ones with answers and made an app to save your time and efforts. You can download them at the bottom of the article. Practise as much as you can 5~7 days before taking the exam. Don't worry if you can't answer those questions in the beginning. Save those questions or put down some notes if you answered incorrectly during the practise, and shorten the list by practise, practise and practise. Example of the wrong question list (you can find the app at the end of this article):
Lastly on the day of test, just go through your own wrong question list (I believe you have a very short list :>) or the notes you have taken.
Good luck and Congratulation!
Q and A
Question 1: What is the Australian Citizenship test looks like?
20 multiple choice questions with only ONE correct answer, and you should finish them in a 45 mins. i.e. Green means you just answered correctly.
Question 2: Do you need to practise the Australian Citizenship test before the test?
I would recommend most of you do some practise before the exam, not only because you want to play safe and pass the test but also you can get familiar with the question format.
Question 3: What documents should I bring with during the test?
For documents and files, please check the article: Documents and files
Question 4: What if I cannot attend the Citizenship Test?
For whatever reason you need to let the Immigration Department know you cannot make the test by the date time proposed in the Email, the website/url is:
https://appointments.homeaffairs.gov.au/login
Client ID is the the 11-digits number in the email body.
Some useful websites and apps when I apply for Australian Citizenship:
- Australian Citizenship Our Common Bond
- https://online.immi.gov.au/lusc/login
- Australia Citizenship Test (2019) Android (Free)
- Australia Citizenship Test 2019 iPhone ($2.99), no ads, no subscription, no in-app purchases, this is the Cheapest on App Store
