Australian Citizenship
 

Hi! All,
I am confused regarding the waiting period to get Australian citizenship. Could somebody please clarify.

My PR visa expires March 2006
I made my landing in July 2002 and stayed in Australia for 10 days.
As stated you have to be in Australia for a period fo 2 years to get citizenship and out of those 2 years you should have resided for one continuos year before applying. In that case I should be in Australia latest by March 2004. Am I getting this all OK. The confusion is should it be 2 years and 1 continuous year (total of 3 years) or total 2 years out of which one year stay should be continuous.

One more querry, can I continue to live and work in Australia after the expiration of my PR, without leaving Australia.

The reason I am asking this question is the current IT job market in Australia does not look too good. So would like to spend as much time in my current job and save some money before moving to Australia permanently.

Thanks for your help.

Re: Australian Citizenship
 

> The confusion is should it be 2 years and 1 continuous year (total of 3 years)
> or total 2 years out of which one year stay should be continuous.

To qualify for Australian citizenship, you should have been/are residing in Australia as a permanent resident:

1) at least 2 years in the last 5 years immediately before your application.

AND

2) at least 1 year in the last 2 years immediately before your application.

These two requirements are concurrent, which means that time used to satisfy condition (1) can obviously be used to satisfy condition (2).


> One more querry, can I continue to live and work in Australia
> after the expiration of my PR, without leaving Australia.

Yes, you may continue to live and work in Australia indefinitely. Your PR never expires, it's your migrant visa that does. However, once your initial migrant visa has expired, you will not be able to preserve your PR status if you left Australia without either a valid RRV or an Australian passport.

HTH

Peter

Re: Australian Citizenship
 

Thanks Peter.

Re: Australian Citizenship
 

    >On Mon, 16 Sep 2002 08:21:00 +0000, stan <[email protected]> wrote:

    >Hi! All,
    >I am confused regarding the waiting period to get Australian
    >citizenship. Could somebody please clarify.
    >My PR visa expires March 2006
    >I made my landing in July 2002

If your PR visa expires in March 2006, it was issued in March 2001.
And you say you landed in July 2002 - how did you manage to land 16
months after your visa was first issued?


    >and stayed in Australia for 10 days.
    >As stated you have to be in Australia for a period fo 2 years to get
    >citizenship and out of those 2 years you should have resided for one
    >continuos year before applying.

It's two separate requirements:

2 years (730 days) in the 5 years before you apply for citizenship;
and

1 years (365 days) in the 2 years before you apply for citizenship.

Yes, the two periods can overlap.
No, they do *not* have to be continuous.


    > In that case I should be in Australia
    > latest by March 2004.

You should be in Australia by March 2004 as if you arrive later you
risk having problems in travelling between March 2006 and whenever you
get to qualify for a Resident Return Visa.

Have a look at: http://austral-
ianz.topcities.com/permanent.htm



    >One more querry, can I continue to live and work in Australia after the
    >expiration of my PR, without leaving Australia.

Yes, you can - provided that you are in Australia on the expiry date
of your visa. That is not flexible at all.

Leaving Australia includes a short holiday - even to New Zealand -
after your migrant visa expires you would need an RRV for that too.


    >The reason I am asking this question is the current IT job market in
    >Australia does not look too good. So would like to spend as much time in
    >my current job and save some money before moving to Australia
    >permanently.

Fair enough - but at some point you are going to have to take the
plunge. If you're looking for a guaranteed job on stepping off the
plane, there's almost certainly *never* going to be a good time.


Jeremy

Re: Australian Citizenship
 

[QUOTE][SIZE=1]Originally posted by Jaj:
    >On Mon, 16 Sep 2002 08:21:00 +0000, stan <[email protected]> wrote:

    >Hi! All,
    >I am confused regarding the waiting period to get Australian
    >citizenship. Could somebody please clarify.
    >My PR visa expires March 2006
    >I made my landing in July 2002

If your PR visa expires in March 2006, it was issued in March 2001.
And you say you landed in July 2002 - how did you manage to land 16
months after your visa was first issued?


Correction - I made my landing in July 2001.

Thanks Jeremy.

Re: Australian Citizenship
 

[QUOTE][SIZE=1]Originally posted by Jaj:
    >On Mon, 16 Sep 2002 08:21:00 +0000, stan <[email protected]> wrote:

    >Hi! All,
    >I am confused regarding the waiting period to get Australian
    >citizenship. Could somebody please clarify.
    >My PR visa expires March 2006
    >I made my landing in July 2002

If your PR visa expires in March 2006, it was issued in March 2001.
And you say you landed in July 2002 - how did you manage to land 16
months after your visa was first issued?


Correction - I made my landing in July 2001.

Thanks Jeremy.