jon111

Hi all interesting question for you all

my friend was telling me if you get PR in Australia you can also move over to new zealand as well if you want without doing another visa etc is this true? i cant see it myself as surely they have different migration rules?

Pollyana

Its kind-of true....
Having PR for Aus means you can live and work in NZ.
However unless you have citizenship eventually your travel rights on the Aus PR will run out and you will be unable to return to Aus. Before that happens you would need to look into what you have to do to get a visa to live permanently in NZ, along with the ability to travel in and out. Otherwise you risk at some point in the future not being able to get back into either country.
Check out the NZ forum for NZ migration rules.

carcajou

Yes it does.

See Pollyanna's reply for the nuance of it.

jon111

so yes in the sense that you can untill the 5 year point i assume at which you would loose pr in aus then in turn loose the visa for nz?

so what hes saying is technically true but eventually you would be buggered lol?

Pollyana

Once you get to the point where you have held Aus PR for 5 years, the travel portion of the PR expires. That means you cannot return to Aus without either e Residents Return Visa, or citizenship. Citizenship will be out of the question iif you have not been living in Aus. A RRV is highly unlikely to be granted if you haven't been living here, but have been in NZ most of the time.
Therefore you will be unable to return to Aus if you want to leave NZ.

If you are living in NZ with Aus PR but no NZ visa, and want to leave then return, there comes a point when you need to get some kind of visa or permit in order to do that. I don't know the rules around that, you'd need to look at New Zealand Immigration rules for that one. The alternative is to actually qualify for, and get, PR for New Zealand.

As you say, technically he is right, but eventually you might find yourself buggered indeed especially as you would effectively be at the mercy of two governments and their immigration changes.

Edited to add - This link might help
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...-resident-visa

jon111

yeh true i kind of thought that was the case

how quickly can you get citizenship in aus assuming im there on PR? and i assume there's quite a dollar sign attached with it?

im doing my best to get over to you lot but vetassess keeps changing my skills assessment date the sods got to wait till end of august now! patience is not my virtue lol

Pollyana

Citizenship laws are currently under review. Looks like it will probably require 4 years as PR. Thread discussing it here - http://britishexpats.com/forum/immig...hanges-895633/ and the official site here http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Citi but that isn't updated yet as the changes are not yet law.

carcajou

I think, as well, that the NZ PR you get from AU PR, cancels each time you leave NZ, and then you get a fresh one each time you return. The impact of that is, you can't accumulate time for NZ citizenship that way, unless potentially you never leave. But NZ also requires 5 years for citizenship, which is longer than you will be able to do on you AU PR.

ptlabs

Inability to acquire NZ citizenship on the basis of an Australian passport (or permanent visa) is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if one plans to be a member of the Australian federal Parliament

Pollyana