Ceremony and after
Resuming Australian citizenship
Choose how you lost your citizenship above to see whether resumption is open to you, then read the conditions and the steps.
Independent, non-government site: tests, applications and appointments are handled only on the Home Affairs website.
Can I become an Australian citizen again?
Resumption
Open to you
| Fee | $255 |
| Form | 132 |
| Ceremony | not required |
Resumption lets a former Australian citizen become a citizen again without going through conferral. Home Affairs lists five situations: you lost citizenship by becoming a citizen of another country as an adult before 4 April 2002; you renounced it to acquire or keep another citizenship; you renounced it to avoid significant hardship or detriment; your citizenship was revoked as a child when your responsible parent's citizenship ended; or you were a citizen by registration or naturalisation and lost it after living outside Australia and New Guinea for seven years in a row between 26 January 1949 and 8 October 1958. The application is made on paper with form 132, at any age, from inside or outside Australia. The fee on form 1298i of July 2026 is $255, with no fee for children under 16 on a parent's form; the Home Affairs page still shows an older $210. There is no test and no ceremony: the certificate arrives by registered post after approval.
Did I lose my Australian citizenship?
Your Australian citizenship
Probably lost then
| Dual citizenship allowed from | 4 April 2002 |
| If lost before that date | resumption, $255 |
| Other country’s law | check it separately |
Taking another citizenship as an adult before 4 April 2002 ended Australian citizenship in most cases.
Questions, dates and fees by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How questions and dates are built
The five cases that qualify
| How citizenship was lost | Can resume? |
|---|---|
| Became an adult citizen of another country before 4 April 2002 | yes |
| Renounced to acquire or keep another citizenship | yes |
| Renounced to avoid significant hardship or detriment | yes |
| Revoked as a child when a responsible parent's citizenship ended | yes |
| Citizen by registration or naturalisation, seven years outside Australia and New Guinea between 1949 and 1958 | yes |
| Renounced for any other reason | no; conferral as a permanent resident instead |
The loss before 2002
The most common case is historic. Section 17 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 provided that Australians over 18 who took action to acquire the nationality of another country ceased to be Australian on that acquisition. The rule stopped applying on 4 April 2002, when dual citizenship became possible, but the loss was not reversed automatically: resumption is the way back. The tool on the dual citizenship page helps check whether a past naturalisation abroad ended your Australian citizenship.
Applying
Resumption is applied for on paper with form 132, posted with the documents and the payment. The fee is $255 on form 1298i, the July 2026 schedule; the Home Affairs page still printed $210 on 25 October 2026. Children under 16 on the same form as a responsible parent pay nothing. Tell the department about any change of name or contact details while it decides, and send any extra or original documents it asks for.
After approval
There is no citizenship test and no ceremony for resumption. The certificate is sent by registered post after approval; allow about 2 weeks for printing and postage in Australia, and about 6 weeks overseas if you gave no Australian postal address. If the department made an error on the certificate, tell it within 6 weeks to avoid a new application. You can then apply for an Australian passport, and if you are 18 or over you must enrol to vote.
Resumption or conferral?
When resumption is open to you, it is usually the simpler path. Conferral as a permanent resident requires a permanent visa, 4 years of lawful residence with at most 365 days away, the citizenship test for applicants aged 18 to 59, a ceremony and a fee of $595. Resumption has its own criteria, set out in full on the Home Affairs page, but no citizenship test and no ceremony, and it costs $255. Someone who renounced for a reason outside the five cases, however, has only conferral, and the residence calculator then gives the first possible date.
Children of former citizens
Children of people who lost citizenship can have routes of their own. A child born overseas to a parent who was an Australian citizen at the time of birth may apply for citizenship by descent; the descent page covers it. Some children of former citizens who lost citizenship in specific circumstances also have their own provisions under conferral and do not sit the test, as the exemptions page notes.