I sent an email to the responsible minister hoping to have the confusion cleared. The minister put me in touch with the appropriate bureaucrat. The public servant gets my details, but cannot help.
I am a great great great great grandchild of Australia's first known Chinese migrant. My mother was born in her mother's house in Sydney. She has never been a citizen of another nation, although she has spent some 17 years liveing overseas, like when I was born.
My father was born in Sydney. He has represented Australia to foreign nations, once opening an Australian school in Dubai. He has never held any other citizenship than Australian.
I am not Australian, because I haven't yet completed the correct forms. I cannot complete form 118 because the government does not recognise my parents as being my parents. I must have a birth certificate to prove they are. However, my birth certificate was burned by my mother in a house fire when I was five, and I only have a photographic copy that the government won't accept. I have waited two months for a registered copy to come from o/s. The bureaucrat suggests I use my parent's birth certificates .. apparently the government can't locate them on its databases.
I will use the form 124 to become a citizen. After I pass the test. In the meantime, because I came to Australia at age 11 under a US passport, now lost, I am considered, haveing worked here full time in public service for 16 years, an illegal immigrant.
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