Hello everybody,
Just a bit of background: I understand that eligibility for citizenship by conferral requires the applicant to be in Australia at the moment of the application, four years of continuos residency in Australia (with a maximum of three months per year spent overseas) and one full year of PR. I will be eligible for applying for the citizenship by conferral from the 24th of February 2022 (that is, one year from the day I received my PR).
Unfortunately, I have to start a 2-years fellowship in UK on the 1st of March 2022. The fellowship will require me to go back to UK and spend most of my time during the next two years there. I will be extremely flexible in terms of travelling abroad, and I expect to be able to spend in Australia a few months without any problem, but the centre of my operations will be UK.
The start can not be delayed beyond the end of March. This implies that I will have to apply for the citizenship and then leave Australia. I will nonetheless book a return ticket, ideally for June/July 2022 and plan to periodically return to Australia every 3-4 months.
My question: since all the residency requirements apply to residency up to the day of application for the citizenship, is it ok to leave the country after applying for it? I plan to come back to Australia and settle here at the end of the fellowship, but given the nature of my job (I have to travel and stay abroad long times every year), it would be much harder for me to fulfil the residency requirements if I miss this application window.
I read somewhere that the Immigration office will contact me in case they find I am abroad at the time they handle my application. Is that true? What would the best course of action be?
thanks