It's the ultimate goal of many migrants when they move to Australia, but the stats show becoming an Australian citizen may be losing its appeal.
While net migration to Australia continues to rise, the number of people applying to become Australian citizens has dropped to its lowest levels since at least 2014.
In 2018-19, 138,000 Australian residents lodged an application to become citizens, down 42 per cent on the year before.
Information provided to Senate estimates by the Home Affairs Department suggests demand hasn't rebounded since then, with 48,255 applications received in the four months to the end of October.
Migration Council of Australia CEO Carla Wilshire puts the drop in demand down to a combination of factors, including the almost two-year wait for a decision on an application.
“In part, it's a recognition that as we’d had a couple of years of backlogs, people are holding off on the applications. I also think there were quite a few applications go through as the citizenship changes were debated so we had a surge in applications followed by a lull," says Ms Wiltshire.
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