The Citizenship Advisory Committee (CAC) in late April have deliberated 43 Citizenship Applications, said Minister for Immigration and Border Security, Bryan Kramer.
“The recommencing of the CAC hearings is encouraging after the last one was held in September 2019. The Committee was unable to meet since then due to legislative and political factors affecting the status of the CAC members.
“This issue has been resolved and the permanent members of the Committee were sworn in by the Head of State at the Government House on 7th and 21st April,” said Kramer.
The role of the CAC is to deliberate on citizenship matters through files compiled by the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Authority (PNGICA), and provide recommendations to the Minister responsible to make decisions in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee and the Ministerial powers in deciding on citizenship matters.
“The total number of applications received up to May 6, by ICA is 286. One hundred and forty-nine of these applications have been assessed and met all mandatory requirements and received positive clearance from relevant security and regulatory agencies,” Minister Kramer said.
“Of the forty-three applications deliberated by the CAC on 29th and 30th April 2022, five applicants applied for citizenship through the naturalization pathway while thirty-eight applied for dual citizenship under other pathways. There are eight different citizenship pathways.”
He said most of those applicants have lived in PNG for more than eight years and some were born in the country.
About 106 applications are to be presented to the CAC for deliberation in the next meetings and 137 are still pending clearance from security and regulatory agencies.
Minister Kramer said the Immigration and Citizenship Authority is stepping up processing of the backlog of Permanent Resident and Citizenship applications, among other efforts such as improving the visa and passport processing system, increasing staffing, and completing investigations into corruption involving illegal immigrants.