This has been a very good week for me personally as I have made progress on two big goals for the year. The first is that I finally have permanent employment as a Senior Research and Policy Officer in the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. I thought this day would never come as I have been applying for ongoing jobs for quite a while and just missing out. It has been a frustrating and stressful time as my latest fixed term contract was due to finish in September. Thankfully I no longer have to worry and can relax. I will be working in the same research and policy area I have been in for the last two years doing work focused on school workforce reform, pre-service teacher education, and open learning spaces in schools.
The other thing I have had to deal with is applying for Australian citizenship. My permanent residency visa needed to been renewed this year if I ever wanted to leave and get back into the country. Since I was going to have to pay the government either way, I decided it was time to finally put in my application for citizenship. My citizenship appointment was originally scheduled for early August, but in a strangely proactive move for a bureaucracy, I got a call last week asking if I would like to move up my appointment. "Yes please" I said, so today was the new day. I had spent this week getting certified copies of documents done and studying for the citizenship test by reading Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond. The whole appointment took about 20 minutes from start to finish. First they went through my application and checked all my original documents to verify my identity. Next I was brought into the testing room to take the test, which I passed with a 100% score! I now need to wait 4-6 weeks for a decision, and then anywhere from 3-6 months to attend a citizenship ceremony, which is the final stage of the process. I am hoping it won't take too long because I would really like to be able to vote in the upcoming state and federal elections. It will be fun to have dual citizenship.
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