lindajyyu Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Hi experts: I have a question about citizenship application, the residence calculation and the lawful residence date, that I would like to seek for your advise.. Here are the details: My husband got his tourist visa to Sydney on 11/06/2011 valid for 1 year. He applied spouse visa offshore subclass (309 and 100) on 15/07/2011. He then travelled to Sydney and stayed on his tourist visa on 26/08/2011. We went back to Taiwan to submit his health checkup for spouse visa application on 18/10/2011, and came back to Sydney again on 31/10/2011. We went back to Taiwan again on 25/01/2012 and his spouse visa (subclass 309) was granted on 27/01/2012. We then came back to Sydney on 06/02/2012 on his spouse visa. Then his PR got granted on 19/11/2013. My question are: 1. Does his lawful residence date started on the date of 26/08/2011 (which he held tourist visa valid for 1 year) to enter Sydney or does it start on the 06/02/2012 (which he held Temp spouse visa subclass 309)? 2. Is he eligible to apply for his citizenship this year after 26/08/2015 or does he have to wait till 06/02/2016 before he is eligible to apply? Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 A tourist is not a resident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindajyyu Posted July 28, 2015 Author Share Posted July 28, 2015 Thank you for your reply... I thought Lawful residence includes time spent on temporary visas (i.e. Student, Working Holiday, Tourist, Bridging Visas) prior to grant or permanent residency? The part I want to confirm is, my husband held tourist visa in and out of Australia a couple of times while waiting for his visa subclass 309 to be granted.. So this time should count towards the 4 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickyNook Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Thank you for your reply... I thought Lawful residence includes time spent on temporary visas (i.e. Student, Working Holiday, Tourist, Bridging Visas) prior to grant or permanent residency? The part I want to confirm is, my husband held tourist visa in and out of Australia a couple of times while waiting for his visa subclass 309 to be granted.. So this time should count towards the 4 years? Yes. I believe it does. As long as he held a valid visa four years prior to his applying for citizenship (which he did, and a tourist visa does count) then that date is his lawful residence date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindajyyu Posted July 28, 2015 Author Share Posted July 28, 2015 Thank you for your reply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silencio Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Be careful with that and I strongly advise to give the citizenship hotline a call. Did your husband ever held a bridging visa in between tourist and spouse visas? That's the make or break in your scenario here. You mentioned your hubby has been off-shore in order to get his medicals sorted out. If he hadn't received a bridging visa then he can't apply before 2016. So there was a gap and there may be no visa/bridging visa in between and a gap sets the clock back to 0 in regards to the citizenship calculator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Be careful with that and I strongly advise to give the citizenship hotline a call. Did your husband ever held a bridging visa in between tourist and spouse visas? That's the make or break in your scenario here. You mentioned your hubby has been off-shore in order to get his medicals sorted out. If he hadn't received a bridging visa then he can't apply before 2016. So there was a gap and there may be no visa/bridging visa in between and a gap sets the clock back to 0 in regards to the citizenship calculator. Looking at the dates, there was never a bridging visa and even if there had been it would not make any difference at all. Only if there were a period of no visa at all would the clock reset. It looks to me like a visa has been held continuously since 11/6/11 and first entry to Australia was 26/08/11. As such, assuming that there have been no other absences anounting to more than twelve months in total or 90 days in the last year, the OP is eligible to apply for citizenship on 26/08/15. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindajyyu Posted July 28, 2015 Author Share Posted July 28, 2015 Thank you all for replying.. My husband held a valid visa countinously since first time he entered Australia on 26/08/2011. He had tourist visa (which was valid till 10/6/2012), and then subclass 309 visa (which was grated on 27/1/2012), and then PR (which was granted on 2013). He went offshore in 10/2011 for a couple of weeks to get his medicals sorted out, and re-entered Australia on a valid Tourist visa. He then went offshore again on 25/1/2012 in order for his subclass 309 visa to be granted (he needed to be offshore for this), and re-enter Australia on subclass 309 visa on 6/2/2012. I was wondering if the clock reset at this point, or if he can start counting his 4 years from 26/08/2011. But it seems to me that he will be eligible to apply for citizenship next month (08/2015) :-).. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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