There are different ways that a person may have become an Australian citizen, either:
- by application or
- automatically.
Different people may need to provide different documents to confirm their Australian citizenship.
See
Become an Australian citizen and
Get a citizenship certificate.
Australian citizenship by application
A person may become an Australian citizen by application. They can provide
one of the following documents to confirm their Australian citizenship:
- an Australian citizenship certificate
- an Australian citizenship by descent or adoption extract
- a current Australian passport.
Australian citizenship by birth
Arrangements for acquiring citizenship by birth have changed over time. This impacts what documents a person needs to provide to confirm their Australian citizenship.
If a person was born in Australia
before 20 August 1986, they can provide
one of the following documents to confirm their Australian citizenship:
- an Australian citizenship certificate
- a current Australian passport
- a full Australian birth certificate.
If a person was born in Australia
on or after 20 August 1986, they can provide one of the following documents:
- an Australian citizenship certificate
- a current Australian passport.
If a person does not have one of these documents they can provide the following instead:
- a full Australian birth certificate
and
- documents to show that at least one of their parents (named on the birth certificate) was an Australian citizen at the time of their birth. This includes:
- their parent’s Australian citizenship certificate that shows they acquired citizenship before the person was born or
- their parent’s Australian birth certificate that shows their parent was born in Australia before 20 August 1986 or
- if the person’s parent was also born in Australia on or after 20 August 1986, documents to show their parent was an Australian citizen at the time of the person’s birth.
