Citizenship Application Documents and When a Notary Is Needed

For an Australian citizenship application, you usually need no notary at all. Online applicants upload scans of original documents; paper applicants send copies certified by an authorised person such as a JP, pharmacist or police officer. A notary comes in only for documents travelling the other way, such as a declaration your former country wants after you become Australian.

Key takeaways

• At our last check, Home Affairs asked online applicants for scans of original documents, and paper applicants for certified copies of everything except original police certificates.
• Certified copies for a paper application can be made by an Australian citizen in a listed occupation who is not related to you. A Justice of the Peace is on the list; a notary is not needed.
• The pack centres on identity from birth to now: three documents that together show your birth name, date of birth, gender, photograph, signature and current address, plus official evidence of any change of name.
• Documents not in English need an English translation. Made in Australia, that should be by a NAATI-credentialled translator.
• A notary is for documents leaving Australia: renunciation or notification forms, declarations and powers of attorney for your former country.

Why the honest answer is usually "none"

Citizenship by conferral is usually the last step in a long migration sequence. By the time you apply, you hold permanent residence, you are generally in Australia, and many of your documents were already examined when your visa was granted. The application goes to the Department of Home Affairs, an Australian agency that sets its own rules on how documents are provided.

Those rules do not involve a notary. A notary public is a senior legal officer whose certificate is designed to be recognised overseas, with DFAT confirming the notary's signature for foreign authorities. Home Affairs needs none of that. It accepts scans or copies certified by a wide range of ordinary professionals, most of whom will certify for free. Paying for a notary for your citizenship pack adds cost and nothing else.

This page covers the application pack. For using an Australian citizenship certificate overseas once you have one, such as for a second citizenship or a foreign registry, see notarising a citizenship document.

Online or paper: scans or certified copies

How you provide documents depends on how you apply. At our last check, the Home Affairs citizenship by conferral page asked applicants to give original police certificates, scans of original documents if applying online, and certified copies of all other documents if lodging a paper application. It also asked for each document only once, even where it proves more than one thing.

Home Affairs also asks you to show originals later. Most applicants between 18 and 59 attend an appointment to sit the citizenship test, and some have an interview to confirm their identity instead. Bring the original documents your appointment letter lists; a scan uploaded online does not replace them.

Who can certify for a paper application

If you lodge on paper, the Home Affairs certified copy page sets the rules. At our last check, the certifier had to be an Australian citizen, not related to you by birth, marriage or a de facto relationship, and working in one of the listed occupations. The list is long and includes a Justice of the Peace, a legal practitioner, a medical practitioner, a nurse, a pharmacist, a police officer, a full-time teacher and a bank officer with five or more years of continuous service.

The certifier compares your copy with the original and writes or stamps "This is a certified true copy of the original as sighted by me", or, for a copy of several pages, a statement giving the number of pages on the first page, with their initials on the others. They add their signature, full name, occupation, phone number and the date.

The same page notes that a certifier who has known you for at least one year can complete an identity declaration for you and confirm that your photographs are genuine. Choose that person with the application in mind: someone unrelated, in a listed occupation, who has known you long enough can often do all three jobs at once.

What goes in the pack

Identity from birth to now

At our last check, Home Affairs asked for three documents that together show your birth name, date of birth and gender, a photograph, your signature and your current residential address. A full birth certificate showing your parents' names is the usual evidence of birth; if you cannot provide one, the page describes alternatives such as a family or household registration document. Photograph and signature can come from a driver licence or passport pages, and address from a utility bill, rates notice, rental contract or bank statement.

Change of name

If your name has changed, Home Affairs wants official evidence linking the names: for example an official, non-commemorative marriage or divorce certificate, or change of name documents from an Australian registry of births, deaths and marriages or the relevant overseas authority. A commemorative certificate from a wedding ceremony will not do. If the link is a transliteration or spelling difference with no official document behind it, explain it clearly; a statutory declaration is one way, and a JP or other authorised witness can witness a Commonwealth statutory declaration.

Character documents

For applicants aged 16 or over, Home Affairs requests the Australian national police check itself. Overseas penal clearance certificates are different. At our last check, the page asked for one if, since turning 18 and while holding a permanent visa, you spent a total of 12 months or more outside Australia and 90 days or more in any one country, or if the Department asks. It requests New Zealand clearances directly. Check the page for the current test, because this is exactly the kind of rule that changes.

An overseas penal clearance is issued by the other country's authorities and goes to Home Affairs as an original. An Australian notary has no role in it. If you need someone in that country to apply for it on your behalf, see below.

Translations

Any document not in English needs an English translation. A translation made in Australia should be by a translator credentialled by NAATI. A translation made overseas should carry the translator's full name, address, telephone number and qualifications. A notary does not translate and is not needed to "notarise" a translation for Home Affairs. See document translation.

Where a notary genuinely helps

The notary's place in a citizenship story is almost always on the outward side: an Australian document going to your former country. The table shows the difference.

Task	Goes to	Who certifies or witnesses
Identity, name and address documents	Home Affairs	Scans online; an authorised person for paper
Statutory declaration explaining a name	Home Affairs	An authorised witness, such as a JP
Notification or renunciation form for your former country	That country's authorities	A notary, then DFAT
Power of attorney to obtain a foreign document	A relative or agent abroad	A notary, then DFAT
Pension, bank or property paperwork after citizenship	An overseas institution	Usually a notary, then DFAT

Your former country's rules. Australia allows dual citizenship, but your other country may not, or may require you to notify it, surrender a passport or make a formal renunciation. That is entirely its own law, so ask its embassy or consulate. If a declaration or form is required, it is an Australian-signed document going overseas: signed before a notary, then apostilled by DFAT for a country in the Hague Apostille Convention, or authenticated by DFAT and legalised by that country's embassy for others. Check membership on the HCCH status table on the day. The order of work for a document like this:

1. Get the form or the required wording from your former country's embassy or consulate. Many publish their own, and a document that says the right thing in the wrong shape is often returned.
2. Sign it before a notary, unsigned until then, with photo identification.
3. DFAT issues an apostille or an authentication certificate on the notary's signature.
4. Embassy legalisation, if the country is outside the Convention.
5. Translation, if the country asks for one, in the order it specifies.

Getting a document from abroad. If you need a replacement birth certificate or a penal clearance from another country and cannot travel, the usual tool is a power of attorney, signed before an Australian notary and authenticated, authorising a relative or agent there to apply. The foreign document itself is then issued, and if necessary authenticated, in that country. An Australian notary cannot vouch for a foreign registry's record. See power of attorney and legal declarations.

A renunciation is usually permanent. A notary witnessing one will want to be satisfied that you understand what you are signing, and the order of steps between the two governments should be confirmed in writing before you sign. For the outward documents generally, see dual citizenship documents.

Here is an illustration, not a real case

A software tester in Canberra, born in India, applies online for citizenship. She uploads scans of her passport pages, Indian birth certificate with a NAATI translation, driver licence and a rates notice. Her married name differs from her birth certificate, so she uploads her official marriage certificate too. She spent two years working in Singapore on her permanent visa, so she applies to Singapore for a penal clearance and sends the original. No notary is involved. After her ceremony, she learns she must deal with her Indian passport under India's rules, and that is when she contacts the Indian mission and, for the documents it asks for, a notary.

In short

Your citizenship application pack does not need a notary. Apply online with scans of your originals, or on paper with copies certified by an unrelated Australian citizen in a listed occupation, such as a JP. Translate anything not in English through a NAATI-credentialled translator. Save the notary for documents your former country or an overseas institution needs from you. For those, see document notarisation.

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Unsure whether any of your citizenship documents need a notary? Send us the list you were given, and we will explain each step before you book.