How to become an Australian citizen? To meet the general residence requirement for citizenship, you must have been living in Australia lawfully for a period of four (4) years and at least one (1) year as a Permanent Resident immediately before making an application.
All temporary visas, such as visitor visas, student visas, employer or partner-sponsored visas and all classes of bridging visas, can be counted towards the four years lawful residence period.
You may be absent from Australia for up to twelve (12) months within the four (4) years immediately before applying. However, the absence period cannot be counted unless you have already been present in Australia before.
Furthermore, you may be absent for up to ninety (90) days within the twelve (12) months of permanent residence immediately before applying. However, that’s on the proviso you return to Australia as a permanent resident.
It is possible to meet a special residence requirement if you have work that requires you to travel regularly for at least two years before applying for Australian citizenship.
Contact us if you require any assistance with your application.
Hi Nilesh
Thanks for time. I came in Australia 2007, then change to spouse visa , my wife did hairdressers course and we lodged TRA in 2009 and refused in 2010 under PIC (4020) circumstances and my first child born in 2010 and after long time we won the battle in 2019 and now we are on 485 visa till 26May2021 ,and under 10year child rule my son granted Australian citizenship and i have another child he is 2 year old .we are seeking best advise for your experience to settle permanently in Australia.Regards
Your options include making an application for Ministerial Intervention as you already have a decision of the tribunal in hand, although I noticed that it was handed down some time ago.
There is no time limit for making an application for ministerial intervention after the AAT decision.
This is the key to accessing the Minister’s power for the Minister to consider exercising his powers based on the fact that you have an Australian citizen child.
Even though your child is an Australian citizen, the child is less than 18 years old and cannot usually sponsor parents for any parent visas unless there is a relative or guardian who is either an Australian citizen or permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen. Other eligibility criteria also may be relevant.
When you are ready to get specific advice about your circumstances, please book a consultation with us to confirm your options.
Please share your comments with me.
I’d love to know more about your experience with applying for citizenship!
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Hi I have a question can I apply for Australian citizenship as PR after 2 years is there any exception or a way to fastre the process and not to wait 4 years
Hi Bash
Thank you for posting. I have created a page of useful tools including calculators which may be of interest to you here.
There is no apparent reason why you could FastTrack the approval process for Australian citizenship.
Regards, Nilesh Nandan, Immigration Lawyer, Special Counsel, MyVisa® Immigration Law Advisory, myvisa.com.au/ 1300558472
I'm an Australian citizen an I with like to apply for my children's citizenship and they were born outside Australia so how do I apply for my children's citizenship
This is glistening! You're awesome! I don't believe I've ever read anything like that before. It's wonderful to find someone who has genuine thoughts on this subject. Really, thank you for starting this. This website is exactly what the internet needs: someone with some originality!
Hi,
would you please advise me if I am eligible to apply for the citizenship of Australia?
Visa Class : Skill- 190
- Visa Grant Date : 3/10/2014
- First Entry : 15/8/2015 stayed in Australia for two weeks and then stayed away till second entry
- Second Entry : 10/9/2019 - continue ( Staying in Australia over this period without being away )
Hi Nilesh,
do you have to maintain a visa for the full 4 years period? What if you leave Australia after 3 years for a limited time (1-3 month) because your visa had expired and then come back with a new visa. Is the 4 year period start from the beginning when you return or can you still claim the first 3 years as long as you haven't been away for more than 12 month in total?
Hi there,
May I respectfully ask for my eligibility on my citizenship application as many said I am eligible and some also said I am not yet.
I am now Australian PR subclass 100 which applied offshore and granted from 01/10/2019 and I understand that I have to complete 4 years before applying for citizenship.
Unfortunately, I didn't come to Australia since the grant date, I came on the 21/06/2020 which my PR should start the 4 years scheme from that date, so I may be able to apply for my citizenship application on 21/06/2024.
However, I stayed in Australia on my student Visa on 02/06/2014 - 20/04/2016. Will this length of time be counted on my citizenship application?
I am greatly appreciate on your kindness of answer in advance.
Warmest Regards
Piri
Hi, So I landed in Australia on visitor visa on 20/08/2018, got my spouse visa on 05/08/2019. Got my PR on 07/09/2020. Went out of Australia from 10/10/2019-30/01/2020. When should I be eligible to apply for citizenship? Also my residence calculator shows 20/08/2022 however the citizenship application isn’t letting me go further! Im confused.
Hi there,
It’s been a year since I got ‘drug driving’
It was when my application for the the citizenship was lodged.
I had the interview in the same week that I received the letter to go to court.
So my citizenship got refused as i had an open case in court.
My question is when can i apply again for the citizenship?
And my pr expire in October 2024
Thank you very much for your question. Here are the first three (3) things that come to my mind in relation to your post. There may also be other important issues which arise from your particular circumstances and you should seek specific immigration law advice before taking any further steps. It could be that I misunderstood you.
1. You need to show good character and this can be done through a period of non-offending if there is such a word.
2. You need to understand when your period of conviction and sentence ends including any probationary period and I would personally couch to use from that end stage before lodging a fresh application for citizenship unless they’re particularly unique circumstances about your case.
3. You should also understand what your motivation is for citizenship and then have a discussion with somebody who is qualified to give you some specific advice about your circumstances.
*In the interest of speed, my communications are transcribed and transmitted using voice-to-text software – please ignore any unintended typographical or interpretation errors. Please also see the standard Notes and Disclosures which apply to my communications. These are located at the footer of my work emails.
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Regards
Nilesh Nandan
BBus(Accy) LLB(QUT) MBA(IntBus)
Immigration Lawyer | Special Counsel
MyVisa® Immigration Law Advisory
myvisa.com.au/about/
1300558472
Hello Sir,
I am a NZ Citizen in 2016 and moved to Australia in July 2018 (Default received 444 visa on arrival into Australia). I got PR visa in July 2020. Now in Aug 2022, I checked and found that I am eligible to apply for citizenship. I was away from Australia for only 35 days in Dec 2019 - Jan 2020.
When I try to apply online citizen application, I am failed to progress with my application from page 6/36.
" The applicant is unable to proceed with this application. Access the Residence calculator to check when the applicant will have been in Australia long enough to be eligible for Australian citizenship. "
But Residence calculator says "I am eligible to apply for citizen".
Please help with my citizen application.
Regards,
Sandhya C
*In the interest of speed, my communications are transcribed and transmitted using voice-to-text software – please ignore any unintended typographical or interpretation errors. Please also see the standard Notes and Disclosures which apply to my communications. These are located at the footer of my work emails.
This is because you had no Visa for Australia for the 35 day period.
As the holder of a special category 444 Visa you were not required to get a bridging Visa to exit and return to Australia (for your 35 day holiday) like most other people who are not New Zealand citizens would have been required to do.
Whilst you are allowed to have a period of limited travel outside of Australia in the four years prior to making your citizenship application and also in the 12 months prior to making a citizenship the online application form is glitching because it can’t detect that you continuously held a Visa for Australia.
This is a similar problem to when somebody lodges a Visa in Australia but no bridging Visa is immediately granted and they appear in immigration system to not have held any Visa for a short period of time and that gives the similar error to them when making an online application … but for this there is a workaround based on submissions addressing administrative error arguments.
Book a quick 10 minute chat with me here: https://myvisa.com.au/10-Minute
Did you benefit from this response? Feel free to buy me a coffee if this was useful. It helps me answer more questions like yours!
Regards
Nilesh Nandan
BBus(Accy) LLB(QUT) MBA(IntBus)
Immigration Lawyer | Special Counsel
MyVisa® Immigration Law Advisory
myvisa.com.au/about/
1300558472