Citizenship Ceremony September 2025
Dear Wyndham City Council,
My citizenship application was approved on 10 July, and I was looking forward to attending the citizenship ceremony scheduled for 17 September, which was previously displayed on the Wyndham Council website. I have since noticed that this date has been removed.
While I understand that ceremony dates may change for various reasons, I was deeply disappointed to learn that this delay may extend my wait. According to the Department of Home Affairs data, only about 2% of applicants experience wait times of more than three months for a ceremony in the Wyndham Council. Unfortunately, I now fall into this category.
As you are aware, Wyndham is one of the largest councils in Australia, with significant cultural diversity and a high number of citizenship applications. The cancellation of the September ceremony may contribute to further backlogs and longer waiting times for many approved applicants.
Through this message, I respectfully request that the Council consider scheduling an alternative ceremony date in late September or early October to help reduce the backlog and help people who have been waiting for over 2 months and ensure timely access to ceremonies.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Kind regards
Raj Kishore
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Dear Wyndham City Council,
Further to my earlier message, I wish to add an important point regarding Australian Citizenship Day.
While reviewing the Australian Citizenship Ceremonies Code on the Department of Home Affairs website, I noted the following statement on page 21:
“Local government councils should hold a citizenship ceremony on or around 17 September. Australian Citizenship Day is celebrated with special citizenship ceremonies, affirmations and other events around Australia.”
Given this guidance, I was surprised and disappointed to see that Wyndham Council cancelled the ceremony originally scheduled for 17 September, which coincides with Australian Citizenship Day. This day holds significant meaning as a celebration of cultural diversity, belonging, and community spirit across the nation.
I respectfully ask the Council to please reconsider hosting a ceremony on or around this important date, or to provide clarity on why the planned event was cancelled.
Thank you again for your time and consideration.
Yours faithfully,
Raj Kishore
Thank you contacting Wyndham City. Depending on the nature of your email
it may take up to 10 working days to receive a response from the relevant
department.
For service requests, you will receive a separate acknowledgement once it
has been logged in our system. If for some reason you have not had any
response from us within 10 working days, please contact the customer
service team on 1300 023 411.
Need to report an issue? For a quicker response, use our new customer
portal [1]here. Portal requests go direct to the right business area 24/7
and you can log and track your requests from any device.
The information transmitted is for the intended recipient only and should
not be re-distributed or published without express written permission from
Wyndham City Council. It may contain confidential, proprietary or legally
privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived, lost or
destroyed by reason of any transmission. If you have received this email
in error please notify Wyndham City Council immediately on 1300 023 411,
or by return email to the sender, and delete the original email and any
copies from your system. Any views expressed in this email are those of
the individual sender, except where the email states otherwise and the
sender is authorised to state them.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/raise-req...
Dear Raj,
Thank you for your email and delighted for you that you are progressing in your application for Citizenship.
You are correct in that a date has changed and this does happen from time to time for various reasons as stated on our website.
No residents had been requested to attend 17 September.
Three ceremony dates are currently planned for the remainder of the year, with an additional date likely to be included also (TBC).
We look forward to meeting you at a ceremony in the future, noting the Department of Home Affairs allocates residents to dates. You may wish to contact them on 131 881 to get an approximate idea of when your ceremony will be.
Kind regards,
Lesley
-----Original Message-----
From: Raj Kishore <[FOI #13573 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 3 September 2025 11:02 AM
To: FOI requests at Wyndham City Council <[Wyndham City Council request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Citizenship Ceremony September 2025
[You don't often get email from [FOI #13573 email]. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentific... ]
Dear Wyndham City Council,
My citizenship application was approved on 10 July, and I was looking forward to attending the citizenship ceremony scheduled for 17 September, which was previously displayed on the Wyndham Council website. I have since noticed that this date has been removed.
While I understand that ceremony dates may change for various reasons, I was deeply disappointed to learn that this delay may extend my wait. According to the Department of Home Affairs data, only about 2% of applicants experience wait times of more than three months for a ceremony in the Wyndham Council. Unfortunately, I now fall into this category.
As you are aware, Wyndham is one of the largest councils in Australia, with significant cultural diversity and a high number of citizenship applications. The cancellation of the September ceremony may contribute to further backlogs and longer waiting times for many approved applicants.
Through this message, I respectfully request that the Council consider scheduling an alternative ceremony date in late September or early October to help reduce the backlog and help people who have been waiting for over 2 months and ensure timely access to ceremonies.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Kind regards
Raj Kishore
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The information transmitted is for the intended recipient only and should not be re-distributed or published without express written permission from Wyndham City Council. It may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived, lost or destroyed by reason of any transmission. If you have received this email in error please notify Wyndham City Council immediately on 1300 023 411, or by return email to the sender, and delete the original email and any copies from your system. Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender, except where the email states otherwise and the sender is authorised to state them.