Australian citizenship conferrals have plunged to a 15-year low as the backlog of applications yet to be processed mounts to a record high, causing longer waiting time for migrants wanting to pledge allegiance to Australia.
In 2017-18 the number of people who were conferred with Australian citizenship fell to 80,562 - a level not seen since 2002-03 when just over 79,000 people received citizenship by conferral.
It comes as the Federal Government is already facing criticism for citizenship application backlogs mounting to over 240,000, making applicants to wait 17-19 months, some even longer.
