Citizenship

If you or your employees seek to become citizens of Australia, citizenship residence requirements might be of interest to you.

From 1 July 2010 ALL citizenship applicants aged 16 and over will need to meet the following residence requirements at the time they apply for Australian citizenship regardless of when they first arrived in Australia:

• they have been living in Australia on a valid Australian visa for 4 years immediately before applying, including 1 year as a permanent resident, and
• have not been absent from Australia for more than 1 year during the 4 year period, including no more than 90 days in the year immediately before applying.

This change mainly affects people who are trying to balance the requirement of living in Australia as a permanent resident with allowable absences and overseas travel. It means you must hold a permanent residence visa valid for entry to Australia or resident return visa for any time spent outside Australia, during the whole 12 months immediately before making an application.

If you like to calculate your residence status, you can either call the Citizenship Information Line on 131 990 during business hours or use the residence requirements calculator at https://www.ecom.immi.gov.au/citz/startIntervalCalc.do

Permanent residents must maintain their permanent resident status at all times to remain eligible to apply for citizenship. This means ensuring that you have a current Resident Return Visa at all times when you are outside Australia or a permanent visa that is valid for entry to Australia.

For more details about acquiring Australian Citizenship, click here.