In June 2020, I became an Australian citizen. Just like many others worldwide, I attended the virtual citizenship ceremony. Though it was not the way I had imagined I would become citizen, it turned out to be quick, direct and more personal than taking oath with thousand others in a big auditorium.
When I passed the Australian citizenship test in November 2019, I knew that I have no chance of attending one of the largest citizenship ceremonies of the year on Australia day i.e. 26th January. Especially not when my wife had yet to appear for the test and we had opted to attend the ceremony together. According to my calculation, I expected the ceremony invite by April 2020. Add to that the time it would take to get citizenship certificates, obtain Australian passports, surrender Indian citizenship and get the OCI, I thought I had enough time to plan for our long-overdue India trip by end of 2020.
