ugez009sumi

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can help me with a question:

I have a residency visa for Aus (skilled migration-independent). I plan to sponsor my girlfriend in a year or so and I understand she will get a temporary visa. If we move to Aus and live there for 2 years, I understand that I can apply for citizenship and after 2 years if we prove we are still living together she will get a type of perm. residency visa. If she stays a further 2 years she can then apply for residency.

Now my question is if at the point I get my citizenship and we marry, does she become a citizen (thus she does not have to wait for another 2 years).

Simply we want her to be citizen in 2 years like me!

Thanks or your help.

Christian

mickj

Just thought i'll bump it up for you, very tricky this one, have you visited the website to see what the rules are? You might also want to nip into OZ house in london if you are round there, to have a chat with someone.

JayDeee

Dont know for definate but I very much doubt she will autimatically become an Australian Citizen,.

My Hubby is Australian by birth, his family have lived there since 18?? and I am married to him and I and many others are having to go through this malarky about applying for visa's and having to live in Oz for 2-4 years (depending on whether subclass 100 or 309 spouse visa is granted) before we can get citizenship so i doubt very much that your girlfriend will get it because you do.

Cheers
Kala

Ceri

I'm certainly no expert on this ( and to get 100% correct answers you should really ask someone in the immigration departments).

I've just gone through becoming a citizenship myself, so this may be of some help to you:

You becoming a citizen doesn't mean she can become one before her two years of residency requirement are up.. just because you are married. There are lots of people on this forum who are married to an Australian citizen and they have to wait the two year PR requirement before becoming a citizen.

Citizenship requires that the applicant has lived in Aus for 2 years as a permanent resident whether they are married or not ( of course there are always exceptions to this, like maybe hardship reasons etc, and probably other loop holes I don't know about).

After two years of you both being PR you can both apply for citizenship. If you are not legally married to her and are living in a de-facto relationship at this point, she can apply on her own, you don't need to be legally married for her to become a citizen. All that it means ,unlike a married couple where you need only to submit one application ( married couples and children go on the same application), De-facto couples are two separate applications when applying for citizenship. It's about the only time I can think of that de-facto couples are not treated as "spouse", and need to submit two separate applications.

There is not much benefit to citizenship, so I don't really understand why you want her to become a citizen in a hurry. When/if she gets PR she will enjoy most of the perks that citizens do. The only thing you can't do when you're not a citizen is vote. . plus after 4 years of being PR ( when the "multiple travel" date in your PR visa expires) you need a return visa to re enter Australia if you intend to travel in and out of the country.


Good luck

P.S .. taken from the gov citizenship site:http://www.citizenship.gov.au/faq.htm

To apply for Australian citizenship you would need to have been in Australia for at least 2 years as a permanent resident in the last five years. This time must include a total of twelve months in the two years immediately before making your citizenship application. The twelve months does not need to be continuous.

There are some exceptions to the residence requirements:

Service in the permanent Australian Defence Forces for at least 3 months;
Service in the Australian Reserve Forces for at least 6 months;
Former Australian citizens or persons born in Australia; and
)Spouse, widow or widower of an Australian citizen ( this one.. so perhaps there is a loop hole there some where.. maybe one of the agents here can elaborate on it.. try your post in the immigration forum on this site

JAJ

1. Unfortunately, calling a public enquiry line does not always get correct answers.

2. Concessions on the residence requirement are only given to spouses of Australian citizens in limited circumstances

3. Spouse will have to get PR first, and then live in Australia for 2 years.

4. It's quite common for one spouse to be eligible to apply for Australian citizenship before the other. There is no obligation to wait for the other spouse to be eligible also before applying - it just means you become citizens at a different time.

Jeremy