What if in not here when invited for ceremony?

New here, please be kind!

I applied on: Feb 2019
Received notice of approval on: 21/01/20
I am a citizen: dd/mm/yy

I received my letter today to submit my fee, photos and GNIB card.

Based on what I’ve searched through the forums, I can travel without my GNIB card if i submit it to them and that there is a huge backlog in applications.

I have all ready to post today however, I have travel plans I cannot change which means I will be away on March 2,3 which are the next ceremony dates.

What are the chances of being invited to that ceremony and if I specifically state that I won’t be here, do I just automatically go on the list for the next ceremony?

Or do I get stuck in limbo forevermore?

Vast majority of people will be included once they are approved.

If you are an Australian citizen, you just need to bring a copy of your approval letter when you return from your trip.

However, you should make every effort to attend the ceremony. INIS specifically says that you must attend the ceremony on the date/time mentioned in your invitation letter.

If this is truly unavoidable, when you receive your invitation in the next few weeks, you should send an email immediately to the citizenship department with proof of travel (fight tickets etc) and a good reason. They may re-schedule you to a future ceremony but there is no guarantee on that (although I have never heard of anybody getting rejected because they couldn’t attend a ceremony).

Hi, I'm in same boat and I did travel without gnib and there are no issues in doing that. And I have another travel which i couldnt change and I will be back just before the ceremony as per my original plan. However I told citizenship office about my travel plans but nothing heard back from them..not sure if i will be invited in the upcoming or next in list ceremony.