The Australian Department of Immigration recently stated that it plans to increase the difficulty of the Australian citizenship test to prevent terrorists from entering Australia through immigration. Most citizenship applicants must pass the citizenship test to become Australian citizens. Under the current system, there is no additional fee for taking the Australian citizenship test, and even if a candidate fails, they can apply to retake it for free on the same day or at a later date.
Since 2007, more than 650,000 people have taken the Australian computerized citizenship test, with approximately 7,200 (1.1%) failing. According to the Australian Citizenship Test Briefing, immigrants who have taken the Australian citizenship test over the past three years mainly come from India, the United Kingdom, China, the Philippines, South Africa, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka. The number of Australian immigrant candidates from China has consistently ranked third, with a total of 7,006 candidates between 2014 and 2015; however, the pass rate for that same year was only 98.16%, which is slightly lower than the average pass rate of 98.6% for that year.
Survey data shows that an average of several thousand Australian immigrant applicants fail the citizenship test each year. However, they are able to retake the test until they pass. Survey data also shows that a total of 8,000 people have taken the Australian citizenship test between 4 and 10 times. Among those who obtained Australian citizenship after 2012, 96% took the test 3 times before passing.
According to information released by the Australian Department of Immigration, some citizenship applicants may be exempt from the test, including those under 18 years of age, those 60 years of age or older, and those with physical disabilities that prevent them from taking the test.
In fact, for many Australian immigrants, the biggest obstacle to passing the citizenship test is language. However, poor English proficiency is not a reason for exemption from the test. The Australian citizenship test is conducted in English. If a candidate's English is poor, they can participate in the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) for at least 400 hours of English courses. If the course coordinator determines that the candidate has poor English proficiency, they can receive assistance and be granted double the time, for a total of 90 minutes, to take the citizenship test.