sweetyogesh420

Hello all,

My friend has got an issue regarding with citizenship. The whole matter is that he was on 485 Temporary residence visa and his PR (885) Application was in the process. He traveled overseas on 485 and returned in March 2012 and his TR expired in April, 2012. No one from Immigration department or his lawyer advised him to get the bridging visa of 885 application initiated. He was under the impression that it would be applicable automatically while on shore. He received a letter from Medicare to get his medicare benefits updated and he followed that up and got updated medicare in July, 2012 and his 885 bridging visa was initiated. He was granted 885 visa in September, 2012 and Now he was eligible for citizenship and when he applied the department refused to accept the application as in the system records he is been shown as unlawful resident from April, 2012 to July, 2012 so he had to wait till 2016 to apply for citizenship. He is very upset and disappointed at the moment.

Any suggestions or advise would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance.

paddyo

It does state that during your PR process YOU should inform the department of immigration if you are intending to leave the country, as a PR cannot be granted out of country. As brutal as it seems I suspect that your friend has broken the rules and now has to wait, but, he/she has PR so that at least gives them permanency.

sweetyogesh420

Thanks for reply paddyo. But he was on shore before his tr expired and i am surprised how he was granted PR if he was unlawful resident for those three months according to records.

Thanks

old.sparkles

There are similar threads on this subject but I think the result is the same - your friend will have to wait for 4 years after being legal so will be eligible in July 2016.

commonwealth

...unless you can prove the Department committed an administrative error that made him/her unlawful noncitizen.

hardeep.siec

I agree with commonwealth