guptsur

I emailed the department and for a reply from citizenship.online.applications@homeaffairs.gov.au today. 

Basically they said that when I was offshore and renewed my residency and went on RRV I should have come into the country to activate my RRV. This is because of the day my I got RRV my old residency stopped and as I was offshore my RRV did not start. As I did not come into the country to activate my RRV therefore my residency period starts from July 2016 when I entered the country. Hence I have to wait till July 2020 for the four year period.

I hope if helps others in similar situation. -> make sure after you get RRV from offshore you come into the country to activate it <-

23 hours ago, paulhand said:

Policy says:

”If absent from Australia on the day four years immediately before applying

Where a person was outside Australia on the day four years immediately before applying, but had previously been in Australia as the holder of a permanent visa, they may still use the day four years immediately before applying as a start date (for the purposes of being eligible to satisfy the four year lawful requirement), providing that on that day they held a permanent visa.

If these conditions are met, then the person may use the full four year period immediately before applying towards meeting the general residence requirement.”

Drop me a line (details below) with your travel records and I’ll take a look.  

Thanks Paul, I have replied to you via your websites inquiry form. Please share your email and I will accordingly send you an Excel file with all the travel dates.

Thank you.

On 17/11/2019 at 14:39, paulhand said:

I would give the immi system a day or two to catch up and if it is still not letting you proceed, then look into it further. Based on what you wrote I agree with your assessment on dates, but if you are literally on the exact period of 3 years in the past 4 your maths may be slightly out in counting days?

Hi Paulhand,

I called the citizenship number today and they again said that they only look at four years in the past from today and say that I will only be eligible in July 2020. I guess I will wait another few days in case I calculation is not correct. But its really weird that they don't look at the fact that I have been loving in AU for so long. I really thought that they would consider 2015 July to 2016 July as my 12 months outside the country and then three years from July 2016 to July 2019 as my three years in the country but seems like as per the office that is not the case. He just said I don't meet the 3 year out of 4 requirement even though I have been a permanent resident since 2010 (and have been on RRV since 2015 Jan).

Lets see if anything changes in the next 7 days in my immi account.

Regards,

On 17/11/2019 at 14:13, Milano said:

When you were granted a RRV on Jan 2015, did the grant letter have a "Must Make First Entry to Australia Before" date? If it did, did you enter Australia before that date?

Hi Milano,

Unfortunately I don't remember. Even if it did then I would not have I think. 

Thanks @Paulhand - I will report back in few days.

Thanks for your reply once again.

Regards,

Thanks a lot for your reply Yelverton. Gives me a lot of hope.

I too am counting on my 12 month overseas being in the first year and then 3 years straight as being in the country, so hopefully will be able to apply citizenship in few weeks time. 

Sigemup,

were you able to apply or are you still waiting ?

Hi Gabriel_P,

Any news ? were you able to apply or are you having to wait till next year ? I am in a very similar situation as you where the residency calculator says that I will be eligible around 16th November 2019 but the office on the phone says that I will not be eligible till 7th July 2020.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi Yelverton,

Can you provide us update on your situation ? I am in a similar situation as you.

Were you able to apply in June 2018 or if you had to wait till June 2019.

Thanks mate.