All other noncitizens could acquire citizenship by naturalisation after fulfilling a general residence requirement. Candidates must have resided in Australia (including Papua) or New Guinea for at least four of the previous eight years, with one year of continuous residence immediately preceding an application. This was reduced to two of the previous eight years in 1973. Non-Europeans were allowed to apply for residency and naturalisation from 1957, if they were legally admitted and living in Australia for 15 years (reduced to five years in 1966).
