Australia Announces How Long It Will Take to Get Passport in 2026
- The Australian Department of Home Affairs has released its latest official processing times for citizenship and passport eligibility
- Under the updated guidelines, 90% of standard citizenship-by-conferral applications are now decided within few months of submission
- Crucially, obtaining "Evidence of Citizenship", the mandatory document required to apply for an Australian passport, can take some days
Australia's Department of Home Affairs has released its latest citizenship processing times.
This has given foreigners and applicants a clearer picture of how long their journey to an Australian passport is likely to take in 2026.
Source: UGC
Processing time for Australian passport
According to the Australian Department of Home Affairs, 90% of applications for citizenship by conferral, the most common route, are processed within six months of submission.
Once approved, 90% of successful applicants receive an invitation to attend a citizenship ceremony within seven months of that approval. From the date of application all the way through to the ceremony, the full process takes up to 14 months for nine in every ten applicants.
For those applying through citizenship by descent, the timeline is shorter. The Department reports that 90% of those applications are decided within five months. At the faster end of the scale, a quarter of descent-based applicants receive a decision in as little as 51 days.
Processing time for foreigners seeking citizenship
Applicants seeking evidence of Australian citizenship face a far quicker turnaround. The Department processes 90% of those requests within just 16 days, with half resolved in three days or fewer.
The Department also notes several factors that can push processing times out, including incomplete applications, slow responses to requests for additional documents, and the time required to conduct character and national security checks through other government agencies.
UK announces proccessing time for passports
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the UK government has published official guidance on how long it takes to process a British passport application.
Applicants using the standard service can expect a specific turnaround time, though certain circumstances may extend the wait.
Source: Legit.ng
