Russell Crowe grabbed headlines this week when he told the UK's Radio Times magazine that he had twice been rejected in his application for Australian citizenship.
The only trouble is, the Immigration Department has no record of the New Zealand-born actor ever applying to officially become an Australian.
Crowe, who moved to Australia in 1968, first raised the issue in 2013, claiming that "apparently I fall between the cracks". Those cracks are a section of immigration law that demand that he must have been resident in Australia on February 26, 2001 (he wasn't) or have spent 12 months here in the preceding two years (due to filming and promotional commitments for Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind, he hadn't).
The Daily Telegraph reported that in 2006 that Crowe had "intended to become an Australian citizen at an Australia Day concert on the lawns of Parliament House" but the event was canned because "the government wasn't able to facilitate the process in time", according to a spokeswoman from Channel 10, which was to broadcast the ceremony. The report went on to say that "seven years on, Crowe still hasn't satisfied the protocols".
However, that is not at all the same as Crowe having his application for citizenship rejected in 2006 and 2013, as has been widely reported this week.
"They changed the law for New Zealanders," he told Radio Times. "It's so, so…unreasonable."
However, the Department of Immigration has told Fairfax it has no record of either Crowe's applications or its alleged rejections.
"According to Departmental records, Mr Crowe has not submitted an application for a permanent visa or for Australian citizenship," the department said in a written response to questions.
"Should Mr Crowe apply for and be granted a permanent visa, there are a variety of options that he may use to meet the eligibility requirements, including the residence requirements."
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