How can a refugee become a citizen

The required number is usually five. However, if you got your green card based on having had asylum or refugee status first, you will want to understand how your years as an asylee or refugee count toward those required five years.

Part of your time as an asylee or refugee can be counted as permanent residence, based on a concept known as "rollback. Your green card will show the date that USCIS considers you to have become a permanent resident for citizenship purposes. For a review of the eligibility requirements for U. If you were granted refugee status while in another country, and then entered the U. All your years as a refugee in the U. See the Code of Federal Regulations at 8 C. So, for instance, if you spend five years as a refugee living in the U.

You should, however, apply for a green card one year after your date of entry as a refugee , as is required by law. If you were granted asylum in the United States, a maximum of one year of your time in asylee status counts as permanent residence. If you waited longer than a year to apply for your green card, that extra time will not do you any good—you will still need to wait another four years after your green card approval before applying for U.

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When we contacted the Minister for Immigration, he responded by saying that there was no change in policy, and that there was no policy that discriminated against refugees.

However, delays continued to increase, and we grew suspicious. With the support of an amazing pro bono legal team, we lodged an application in the Federal Court on behalf of two Hazara refugees who were waiting over 14 months for an outcome on their citizenship application. By the time of the hearing in July , over 10, other refugees were also waiting for citizenship, half of whom were waiting over 6 months. Evidence eventually provided by the Department shows in fact there was a policy change, and that refugees without identity documents were discriminated against.

Indeed, those fleeing persecution at the hands of their governments are often not going to be able to access identity documents before leaving. It seems the Department simply left these applications in a draw whether a physical or metaphorical drawer , for well over one year.

However, despite this finding, the Department continues to delay citizenship application for refugees, and the waiting time is getting worse. In February , as a follow-up to our report, RCOA conducted a survey of nearly people of refugee background.

Of these, were still awaiting a response to their citizenship application. The average waiting time of those surveyed was over 16 months. Further, recently obtained freedom-of-information requests show that a majority of applicants from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq are still waiting for an outcome of their applications submitted in and These delays are likely to be made worse with the Department freezing all citizenship applications since 20 April , creating a backlog of over , applications.

While citizenship applications are now being processed again, it is unclear if the Department has allocated additional staff to fix this backlog, as required by law. On top of this, the new requirements to provide identity documents from birth is a significant hurdle which most refugees are unable to meet.

This has led to increased refusals based on identity grounds. The Department must look at developing alternative processes to ascertain the identity of refugees. These people have lived in Australia for at least 4 years, remain on a permanent visa and cannot return home. It makes no sense that the Department was satisfied of their identity when they granted them a permanent visa, but now cannot be satisfied of their identity to grant them citizenship. This is often very traumatic for someone, as they are required to recount their entire claim of persecution, often without the assistance of a lawyer.

It seems to us that the Department is doing everything they can to find ways to deny refugees citizenship through this process, rather than seeking to welcome and include those wishing to join our community.

For those on a TPV, they must be reassessed for protection every three years, with no prospect of permanent residency and therefore no prospect of citizenship. These are people who have fled war and persecution, and who often will never be able to return home. Instead of welcoming this group, we are creating a second class of residents who will never be able to settle in Australia. The SHEV on the other hand has a tiny glimmer of hope. If a person on a SHEV works or studies in a designated regional area for three-and-a-half years out of their five-year visa, without receiving income support, they may be permitted to apply for another skilled, student or spouse visa in Australia.

From this, a person can then transition to a permanent visa, and then eventually be eligible for citizenship. However, this process is likely to take many years, with many potential hurdles that would make a person unable to receive a visa, such as not meeting the skills or language requirements for their subsequent visa. Fortunately, with strong community collaboration, this Bill was defeated in the Senate two weeks ago.