Nette

We are due to emigrate to South Australia on a SIR visa in August 07.

Can anyone please clarify whether, on an SIR visa, we are allowed to travel interstate to visit friends etc without the time spent out of South Australia being added on to the 2 year regional living requirement in order to apply for permanent residency??

I know any time spent out of Australia must be added on to the time scale but I am hoping this isn't the case for interstate travel. (Hope this makes sense!!)

sam mick kurt

i'm sure that if you have taken up a living quaters in the region that you will be able to 'holiday' and 'visit' as often as you like ! well i'm assuming that any way! as it would seem a bit too much like prison if you weren't allowed to go out of the region aslong as you live and work there !

BettyBoop

How would anyone know?
There are no border patrols between States, are there?

Nick

When you evidence the 2 years living in SA, this will have to be reasonable, and basically DIAC WILL know if you have spent the time outside of the state.

Regarding spending time outside of certain locations, where living in those locations is crucial to the visa, they do accept 'recreational and business' travel. This means a reasonable level, ie a few weeks here and there at most.

George Lombard

Hi Nette,

No, the test is not "physical presence" in the state but a variation on the legal concept of "residence" in two ways - first, the visa that you've got is subject to condition 8539:

8539

While the holder is in Australia, the holder must not live, study or work outside a part of Australia the postcode of which was specified in the Gazette Notice for item 6A1001 of Schedule 6A, as the notice was in force when the condition was imposed.

The second aspect of the law is that to progress to PR through a 137 STNI visa, for example, you'd need to have "lived" in the gazetted area for two years and have "worked" there for one.

There will be many MRT cases involving what it means to "live" or "work" in a particular place but I think as a general proposition that to "live" in a place must include periods of interstate or overseas holidays if within normal recreational leave limits and while maintaining a household in Australia, and to "work" in a place would include periods worked outside the state if working on a bona fide basis for an employer in that state (but in such a case you'd need to test the boundaries carefully).

The first time DIAC tries to cancel or refuse a visa for breach of these provisions it could well end up in a full blown High Court Constitutional challenge because of s.92 of the Constitution which is supposed to make "trade, commerce and intercourse" between the states and territories "absolutely free". So I assume they won't run around cancelling or refusing without very good cause.

Another complication is that the particular states may also have concerns, but bear in mind that all the SIR states now seem to agree that people can migrate between SIR areas in each state so in practice I don't think it's likely to be a problem for you in the scenario you describe.

Cheers,

George Lombard