Australian Citizenship and Long Term Residency

Once you have been granted your permanent visa it is important that you ensure that you do not lose it. Permanent visas can be cancelled, they can expire or a new visa can replace the older one. It is important that you protect and maintain your status.

Resident Return Visas
While you have the right to remain in Australia on a permanent visa, if you spend too much time out of Australia it is not an automatic entitlement to renew your permanent visa.

Australian Citizenship
For those who migrate to Australia as permanent residents and make it their permanent home, citizenship can be obtained after two years. A residency requirement applies and applicants must prove they have lived as a permanent resident in Australia for at least 2 of the last 5 years as well as 1 of the last 2 years. The residency requirements can be set aside in limited circumstances.

Other ways of obtaining Australian citizenship include being born in Australia and having at least one parent who is a permanent resident or citizen. Children born outside Australia to Australian citizens or permanent residents can (in most cases) be registered as citizens within 25 years of their birth.

Since 1949, when the first Australian citizenship laws were introduced, there have been many changes and different rules may apply to different people depending on when they were born or when they began to reside in Australia.