Citizenship Changes Take Immediate Effect

Hi Perthpoms, I have had a few enquiries about citizenship. Please see this link which states that the new rules are immediate!!!

http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Citi/am-i-eligible

There were a few of us having discussions yesterday about what time qualifies as the four years on a PR as some may be able to apply now but are not 100% sure.

When I first put in my details it says that I am eligible to apply for citzenship from 16th July 2017, but someone advised to try putting the information in differently, when I did it says I can apply for citzenship now!!!! it is so confusing.

On the calculator it says

Permanent residence date -

and

Lawful residence date -

and then you have to put in how many days you have been out of Australia.

On other websites it says the lawful residence date is the day you first stepped into Australia even if it was just to activate your visa, then left after two weeks.

Can anyone shed actual factual light on what construes as the lawful residence date, is it the date you ever first stepped into Australia under your PR visa or the actual date you came to Australia to live as a permanent resident. My main worry is that I apply now, 3 months too early maybe, and get refused, would consequences does that have on future applications. Our main objective is to get citizenship asap for my eldest son is will be going to Uni full time in Feb 2018.

Any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

SJT

@SJT I totally understand your confusion, and can only suggest that the DIBP website might not be totally up to date yet after the recent announcement. There appears to be so much small print in all this and I am assuming that RMA's etc are still digesting it all to make sure they understand the new situation.

May I suggest that you give it a few days and try the website again?

As far as the date you start counting residency from, it used to be from when you commenced residence in Australia. So from that I take it to mean that if you entered the country to activate the visa and then left again for a period of time, you would start your qualifying period from when you returned to reside here. Having said that, the rules have changed often on this issue and I am not sure of where things now stand. Hopefully this will become clearer in the coming weeks.

Personally I think the government have rushed this whole issue without thinking it through completely - typical political bandaid solutions - and I expect there will be dribs and drabs of changes along the way until it is ratified in parliament anyway.

Word of warning, make sure you get it right, even if it means phoning DIAC to confirm, if you think you qualify and cut it fine down to the day, then you go and submit your application, DIAC will take your money, process the application, then fail you on the grounds you have not been here long enough, then you have to apply again and pay yet another fee.

3 month wait is not that long to make sure your 100% correct is it?

There were a few of us having discussions yesterday about what time qualifies as the four years on a PR as some may be able to apply now but are not 100% sure.

 

When I first put in my details it says that I am eligible to apply for citzenship from 16th July 2017, but someone advised to try putting the information in differently, when I did it says I can apply for citzenship now!!!! it is so confusing.

 

 

On the calculator it says

 

Permanent residence date -

and

Lawful residence date -

 

and then you have to put in how many days you have been out of Australia.

 

On other websites it says the lawful residence date is the day you first stepped into Australia even if it was just to activate your visa, then left after two weeks.

 

Can anyone shed actual factual light on what construes as the lawful residence date, is it the date you ever first stepped into Australia under your PR visa or the actual date you came to Australia to live as a permanent resident. My main worry is that I apply now, 3 months too early maybe, and get refused, would consequences does that have on future applications. Our main objective is to get citizenship asap for my eldest son is will be going to Uni full time in Feb 2018.

 

Any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

SJT

I thought lawful residence started when you validated, even if you left because you have to put the fact that you left into the calculator alongside any other periods of absence from Australia.

3 month wait is not that long to make sure your 100% correct is it?

I agree Elfie.... so many people just want instant gratification these days.

Sometimes the goal posts move and you have to do other stuff to achieve what you want in life. None of us are excluded from that!

http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Citi/pathways-processes/application-options/migrant-with-permanent-residence/eligibility

General residence requirement

The general residence requirement is based on the amount of time you have lived in Australia.

You must meet all of the following:

have lived in Australia on a valid Australian visa for four years immediately before applying

must have been a permanent resident for the 12 months immediately before making an application and not have been absent from Australia for more than one year in total, during the four year period, including no more than 90 days in the 12 months before applying.

Under some circumstances you might be eligible to apply for a variation to the residence requirement or be eligible under the special residence requirement.

Calculate your permanent residency

If you were granted a permanent resident visa before you arrived in Australia, your permanent residence date is the date that you arrived in Australia on that visa.

If you were granted a permanent resident visa after you arrived in Australia, your permanent residence date will be the date that the visa was granted.

I agree Elfie.... so many people just want instant gratification these days.

 

Sometimes the goal posts move and you have to do other stuff to achieve what you want in life. None of us are excluded from that!

Easy to be glib when it doesn't affect you Rossy.

Firstly thank you for all your replies. Elfie I totally agree, which I why I am hestiant to file for our citizenship, but cannot seem to get a definite answer from anyone.

Rossmoyne - not quite sure what

"I agree Elfie.... so many people just want instant gratification these days.

Sometimes the goal posts move and you have to do other stuff to achieve what you want in life. None of us are excluded from that!" means.

I do not want instant gratification. We started this journey over 6 years ago. We made sure we got PR before we left the UK, costing us thousands of pounds and taking a year to do so, but we wanted to be as secure as possible when we got here for our children's sake. When we finally got here my hubby was out of work for seven months, luckily we had made financial arrangements to cover that as we knew the chances of us walking straight into jobs was not going to be easy. We have now lived in Perth for nearly four years, love what Perth has to offer and now want to take the next step. I now work for a local electrical company, my eldest son volunteers his time at a local soccer club 5 hours a week. It really only benefits my children to be citizens, my eldest wants to be a primary school PE teacher and to do that he needs a uni degree which will cost him at least $88k to get, so to have a HEX loan to enable that would help out a lot.

If I apply too early, and the first application gets turned down, the chances of getting citizenship in the time frame we need will be very remote, but if we could apply now, it means the chances of my son being a citizen in time to start his uni degree is doeable.

The reason I stopped posting on here was because things rapidly turn into arguments on here, when I first joined the Forum it as all about helping people. Giving advice from those who have gone through the same experience as you and for newbies to have somewhere to go, ask the silly questions, we all need answering at some point but which are very important to the person asking the question.

Arwen - Calculate your permanent residency

If you were granted a permanent resident visa before you arrived in Australia, your permanent residence date is the date that you arrived in Australia on that visa.

If you were granted a permanent resident visa after you arrived in Australia, your permanent residence date will be the date that the visa was granted.

This was the bit a few of us Perth Poms girls were trying to figure out, someone had found something about if you validate your visa first,before making the final move, then that date counts as long as you have not been out of Australia for over a year in the last four years, which applies to us.

Once I have a definitive answer to my question I will post the result here for those querying the same.

Easy to be glib when it doesn't affect you Rossy.

Not being glib at all ..... just stating it as it is. You don't have to agree. If you had read my other comments you would have realised that I totally disagree with the way this was implemented with immediate effect. I don't think it gives a fair chance to those almost at the end of their journey to citizenship.

Firstly thank you for all your replies. Elfie I totally agree, which I why I am hestiant to file for our citizenship, but cannot seem to get a definite answer from anyone.

 

Rossmoyne - not quite sure what

 

"I agree Elfie.... so many people just want instant gratification these days.

 

Sometimes the goal posts move and you have to do other stuff to achieve what you want in life. None of us are excluded from that!" means.

.

Perhaps I worded it wrongly. What I meant was that in life, however much you want something and plan for it, things can come along to change your plans, and you have to go with that because you can't change it.

I dont see the problem with the changes, the citizenship test is a joke anyway, Turnbull goes on about English, the first thing they ask you when you arrive is "Do you want an Interpreter", what a joke, and I'm sure we are all going to get this question wrong, (jokes aside) " Are you allowed to beat your wife in the privacy of your own home" , I agree with the comment on " If you fail the test 3 times you have to wait another two years" if you fail that test once you shouldnt be here !

This should answer the questions, taken from my Immiaccount this morning

Australian citizenship applications

The changes to the requirements to become an Australian citizen will come into effect, and apply to applications made from the date of the Government’s announcement on 20 April 2017. The changes will not apply to applications made before 20 April 2017. Applicants will receive communication on the implementation of these measures and any additional information and documentation that may be required to support their application.

So I spoke to DIAC - had to wait 5 and half hours for a call back!!!

because I have held a PR since Jan 2012 and stepped foot in Aus in Oct 2012 as a PR holder I am eligible to apply now. We will apply for the rest of the family but wait until my middle son turns 16 next month as he has to apply for himself.

hope this info helps others.

So I spoke to DIAC - had to wait 5 and half hours for a call back!!!

 

because I have held a PR since Jan 2012 and stepped foot in Aus in Oct 2012 as a PR holder I am eligible to apply now. We will apply for the rest of the family but wait until my middle son turns 16 next month as he has to apply for himself.

 

hope this info helps others.

Good to hear - hope it all goes smoothly for you.

Thanks Rossmoyne.

i have today sent of my son's citizenship application. I will update on here as things happen so anyone with a similar situation has a rough idea of time periods between each step and what the new citizenship parts include.

Hello SJT - we are very interested to read your post and the information you have gathered. We were granted a PR visa in Jan 2012. We made a validation visit in Nov 2012, then returned to the UK. We didn't return to Oz until Nov 2016, but have now been living here 6mths (or thereabouts.) Our reckoning is that we need to start counting the 4 years of residency from Nov 2016, therefore can apply for citizenship in 2020 - would that be your understanding? If so, and we take holidays outside of Oz in the interim (assuming we are granted a resident return visa beforehand!) will these periods of absence put the Nov 2020 qualifying date back at all? Your advice will be very much appreciated

I believe your date would be Nov 2019, you're allowed one year out of the country in the 4 years, so can be tagged on at the front as long as it validated before. Any holidays out of the country before then would push the date on by that amount. The citizenship changes don't affect the timescales of anyone who has only had a PR visa.

Hello SJT - we are very interested to read your post and the information you have gathered. We were granted a PR visa in Jan 2012. We made a validation visit in Nov 2012, then returned to the UK. We didn't return to Oz until Nov 2016, but have now been living here 6mths (or thereabouts.) Our reckoning is that we need to start counting the 4 years of residency from Nov 2016, therefore can apply for citizenship in 2020 - would that be your understanding? If so, and we take holidays outside of Oz in the interim (assuming we are granted a resident return visa beforehand!) will these periods of absence put the Nov 2020 qualifying date back at all? Your advice will be very much appreciated

This is my understanding (Nov 2020) + any time outside the country is tacked on to Nov 2020. Haven't hear about the grace year mentioned above.

This is my understanding (Nov 2020) + any time outside the country is tacked on to Nov 2020. Haven't hear about the grace year mentioned above.

It's not a grace period as such - but the eligibility requirements are that you must not have been absent from Australia for more than one year in total during the four year period (so they allow you up to a years absence - but not in the final year prior to application - which is only 90 days)

It's not a grace year, Arwen mentions it above as part of the regulations:-

"must have been a permanent resident for the 12 months immediately before making an application and not have been absent from Australia for more than one year in total, during the four year period, including no more than 90 days in the 12 months before applying."

Dunnyboy's legal entry date was Nov 2012 and the four years start ticking from then but he has effectively have to have spend 3 years out of any 4 in the country, so as long as he doesn't leave his 4 years (3 in the country) finishes in Nov 2019.

The change now means you have to have been a PR for all four years now, rather than just the last one.

Edit: Ali beat me to it.

Thanks to Welljock and Collie - we will check withe the DIAC nearer the time Best wishes to both of you.?

Ah right so. Always worth reading the small print eh?

Thanks again everybody - I didn't see the later responses from Ali and Welljock, until today - we must have been posting simultaneously!