India has become the main source of Australian citizenship, surpassing the United Kingdom, with more than 118,000 migrants born in India who have sworn allegiance to Australia since 2013-2014.   Indian migrants have become the main source of citizenship by delegation in Australia over the last five years, surpassing the United Kingdom.   In the five years between 2013 and 2017, more than 118,000 people born in India have sworn allegiance to Australia by becoming Australian citizens.   Candidates born in India also top the list of visa recipients by country as part of Australia's annual permanent immigration program.   Former Minister of Citizenship Alan Tudge revealed the country-by-country breakdown of citizenship statistics in the federal Parliament earlier this year.   Of the 54,419 citizenship applications approved as of February 28, 2018, Indian migrants were the largest cohort, with 10,168 applications for Indian-born migrants having been approved.  
  • 10,168 - India
  • 9 195 - United Kingdom
  • 2,617 - South Africa
  • 2,399 - Philippines.
  • 1 996 - Australia
  • 1,962 - Sri Lanka
  • 1,731 - Republic of Ireland
  • 1,559 - People's Republic of China
  • 1,200 - South Korea
  • 1 193 - Malaysia
  • 20.399 - Other countries
  In 2016-17, more than 22,000 Indians swore allegiance to Australia, while 19,617 Britons became Australian citizens.   Migrants born in India have been at the top of the citizenship ladder since 2013-2014, when 26,040 migrants born in India were granted Australian citizenship. Migrants born in the United Kingdom occupy the second position, just behind India.   Australian Citizenship conferrals lowest in 15 years   However, the number of confiscations of Australian citizens dropped to its lowest level in 15 years in 2017-2018, with fewer than 81,000 migrants having received Australian citizenship by way of conservation - the lowest level since 2002- 03.   There is also concern about the growing backlog of pending citizenship applications and increased wait times.   According to the Ministry of the Interior, nearly 245,000 applications were pending processing by the end of June this year and the overall processing time for citizenship by award is now between 17 and 19 months.   The Department attributes the delay in processing to an increased focus on "community integrity and safety", increased demand for Australian citizenship and an increase in the number of cases requiring a "complex identity assessment".   However, the Ministry stated that it was taking steps to manage the increase in the number of applications and turnaround times and was anticipating a higher number of citizenship applications processed in the current fiscal year.   "The government has set up a working group of 50 people within the Ministry of the Interior to handle extremely complex citizenship applications and to ensure that they are processed as effectively as possible," he said. David Coleman, Minister of Immigration and Citizenship.   "An additional 150 people are also allocated to focus solely on the processing of applications, with all additional staff to be assigned to this position by the end of the year," said Coleman.   He stated that these measures had already yielded results with improved processing of claims in the first three months of this year.