Australian Citizenship

Permanent residency can be attained by living in Australia for a certain period. Many Australian Visas also offer facilities to secure a permanent residence status. It is good to make a note that many of the family-sponsorship Australian visa categories offer this option. To obtain a permanent residence status in Australia, after migrating, the candidate needs to stay in Australia for a specific time period to apply for an Australian citizenship.

Requirements for Australian citizenship residency

Individuals applying for Australian citizenship have to be a permanent resident and living in Australia for more than 3 years out of the total 5 years, before making an application for Australian citizenship. This also includes a period of 1 year in the 2 years, just before making Australian citizenship application. Those applying for permanent residency should be working in Australia on either on an Australia skilled independent Visa or a Family sponsored Visa. These are the two popular types of Australia Visas that are used while processing citizenship applications.

Due to security reasons a new provision was made to the immigration laws, to stop the threat of terrorism from abroad. The rule now prohibits the acceptance of an Australian citizenship application, if an individual is found to be a threat to the Country's national security. This applies for all types of applications which include Australian citizenship by descent, Australian citizenship by conferral and applications for the continuation of Australian citizenship.

Legislation in Australia permits the government to revoke a person’s Australian citizenship when found that the person has committed a serious offence at any time, prior to or after being approved to become an Australian citizen. There is also the possibility of being convicted and jailed for 12 months or more.