The Australian government has decided to deny citizenship to some residents who were stuck overseas due to the restrictions imposed to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Such a thing has been criticized and has been described as a harsh approach since the situation was not under the control of the residents and they had no other choice but to remain in that place when COVID measures were introduced.
The Guardian explains that Farida Natalwala, a citizen of India who has lived in Australia for almost a decade, is the most recent resident who has been denied citizenship by the Australian government.
Natalwala decided to travel to Saudi Arabia in January 2020. However, she was trapped there for 361 days due to the sudden introduction of Coronavirus travel restrictions, which included border closures.
Even though Natalwala did nothing wrong as she was unable to take control of the situation, in line with the current rules that Australia has, an applicant must not be out of the country for over 90 days in the first 12 months after the application is made.
For this reason, Natalwala, who was forced to remain out of Australia for such a long period of time due to the Coronavirus restrictions, has been denied citizenship, VisaGuide.World reports.
Natalwala returned to Australia on January 11, 2022, and lodged her citizenship application seven days later, but her application got denied due to the reason mentioned above.
The decision to deny the citizenship application of Natalwala was affirmed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia, which stressed that “nothing in this decision should be taken to reflect on the applicant”.
“This decision has no effect on the Applicant’s continuing ability to hold the class of visa she already does, as a permanent resident of Australia. Mrs Natalwala is also free to lodge a fresh application for Australian citizenship,” the statement of the Administrative Tribunal of Australia reads.
Additionally, the same pointed out that despite the situation, Natalwala is a resident of Australia, meaning that the will continue to be permitted to reside in Australia.
The decision of the court was seen as harsh by the former immigration department deputy secretary, Abul Rizvi. The latter said that the government could consider making exceptions for such cases.
Currently, Australia is dealing with delays in processing citizenship applications. It has been revealed that around 90 percent of those who have lodged an application for Australian citizenship are subject to a 15-month waiting period to have their application processed.
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