puriaditya1234

Hi all,

I got a unexpected reply for Citizenship office when they said I am not eligible for citizenship since I was an unlawful citizen for couple of weeks. to explain what happened, I applied for 885 visa in october 2010 and at that time got a bridging visa A. I also had a student visa which was valid until 30th March 2011. In Feb 2011 I travelled overseas which apparently ceased my bridging visa. I was of the opinion that the bridging visa would not come into effect since I am on a student visa. Anyway, as it would have happened after 30th March my student visa expired and so did my bridging visa A. On 17th April I got a email from my case officer saying that my bridging visa has expired and I am currently unlawful. She asked me to fill a bridging visa form and said she will reinstate my visa. I filled the form same and got the visa next day. 1 month later I also got my residency.

Now when 1 year has passed and I thought I will apply for citizenship, the dept is saying that I cant because I was unlawful for those 2 weeks. they are saying my 4 years started from when the bridging visa got reinstated which April last year. this sounds shocking to me since I have been in australia since feb 2006.

Someone advised me to apply for Minister's discretion but others are saying it can be approved if there is an admin error at dept's end, which I dont think is the case.

Can someone please guide me as to what I should do. As it will be a very long 4 year wait for me otherwise

thanks

commonwealth

best way perhaps is to get proper professional advice from a lawyer or maybe a migration agent.

Pollyana

Definitely speak to a registered migration agent. Personal preference - George Lombard or Alan Collett, they post on here with contact details in their posts, but there are plenty of others around

louie

This is the law:

"General residence requirement
(1) Subject to this section, for the purposes of section 21 a person satisfies the general residence requirement if:

(a) the person was present in Australia for the period of 4 years immediately before the day the person made the application; and

(b) the person was not present in Australia as an unlawful non-citizen at any time during that 4 year period; and

(c) the person was present in Australia as a permanent resident for the period of 12 months immediately before the day the person made the application".

To be honest, I doubt there is much you can do about it, sorry.

MIB1984

Hi All,
I am in the same situation, just found that I am unable to apply for citizenship and have to wait till July 2015. I traveled overseas on my Graduate 485 Visa while waiting for decision on PR application. But as per department I have only been unlawful for 2 days due to same Bridging visa confusion. I would really appreciate if some can please share there previous experiences or any advice would be great.
Thanks

mrsgreenstar76

Welcome to the forum.

See post number 4.

Bermudashorts

Unfortunately the experience is as above, your clock was reset when you were unlawful.

commonwealth

are you able to apply for ministerial discretion due to administrative error re your bridging visa? maybe you could contact an expert on these matters for professional advice.

eszter

Hi puriaditya1234,
I'm in the same situation and would like to know if you had any luck with the Ministerial Discretion. It would be great if you could share your story!
Thanks!

mchowdhury

Dear "puriaditya1234" & "eszter"

Unfortunately I just found yesterday that I am in similar position while I was nearly finishing to prepare all the papers for the application!! How unlucky. My Australian life from late 2006 to 2011 looks all invalid now

Did any of you had any luck/update etc?
Please advice. Having two dependant of my own, I would prefer not to go to lawyer and pay a fortune. But I dont know if there is any chance to be considered by DIAC. It is an unintentional honest mistake! I applied for 885 and while the application was still under process, travelled with my valid 485, hence lost Bridging-A without even know about it until last Friday.

Please advice.

old.sparkles

No, Mrs G is not an agent. Any agents using the forum are required to put their details in their signature

Other members you are trying to contact have not been active on the site.

Please do not make multiple posts just to access pm system

mchowdhury

Thanks "old.sparkles"
Dont know much about this site, still browsing..

mchowdhury, Canberra

....

BTW "old.sparkles"

Is there any way someone can contact any of the users? I dont think the person(s) I am after do not check their 'this' inbox

old.sparkles

I would think in your situation your best bet would be a MARA registered agent.

You can try clicking on user name, and then email that person will be an option, but there are no guarantees that they accept emails, or that they have used an email address that they check.

mchowdhury

Thanks for the advice. That is my last resort for now. Hope you understand.
Also, clicking user name then sending PM, is that the same email address that the user use during the registration process??Otherwise, clicking name doesnt give me any visible email address.

Regards

03:55 AM - Update: can email now.

old.sparkles

If clicking on a user name does not give you the option to email a person, it may be because you are a new member - there is no email address, emails are forwarded by BE to protect other users privacy