NSW New Citizenship requirements-eligibility ?

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Dave Smith

Member
24 August 2014
3
0
1
Question about citizenship

My wife has had her Permanent Residency 801 since August 2015 and arrived in Australia in July 2012 on a 300 visa.(nearly 5 yrs in the country nearly 2 yrs PR)
We put some things together to apply for citizenship but had it on the back-burner as we had travelled and going through repeated IVF for the last few months.
Out of nowhere the Government made changes to the requirements appearing to place us outside the time requirement.
My wife is Thai and her english is fine.
Has a cert 2 in english language skills
Has been working since she arrived in Australia and appears to pass all eligibility criteria apart from the changed
time frame to apply.
Some of her friends have told her on social media and in person that she should still be ok.
I have called the Immigration Department and they gave me the scripted response that they'd give everyone.

My question is is there any way around this or must we now wait till August 2019 ?

Sure their are many others with similar questions out there!
 

Lance

Well-Known Member
31 October 2015
852
123
2,394
Hi Dave,
I'm guessing you are referring to this line:
  • Increasing the general residence requirement, which means an applicant for Australian citizenship will need to demonstrate a minimum of four years permanent residence immediately prior to their application for citizenship
And you are asking does demonstrating a minimum of four years permanent residence mean four years living as a permanent resident or four years on a permanent resident visa. My interpretation (and I happy to be told otherwise) is that you need to have been living in Australia on a valid Australian Visa for four years prior to your application for citizenship. I'm basing this on the fact they didn't specifically say four years on a permanent residence visa, they just said 4 years permanent residence.