PR visa holder, daughter is citizen. When can we get Citizenship?

[goodeyemight]

Hi

 

We moved to Australia on a PR visa which the 5 year period is nearly up. We lived in Australia for two and half years then moved back to the UK.

 

Is it still possible to extend the PR visa for another 5 years?

 

Also our daughter was born in Australia and is a citizen, is there any way this can help us get citizenship sooner rather than living in Aus for another 4 years?

 

Thanks in in advance for any help.

[SOMV]

The permanent visa is valid for 5 years at a time and can be renewed if you have spent at least 2 out of 5 years in Australia. So yes, you should be able to obtain new Resident Return Visas (RRV), which will give you a further 5 years, and again you will have to spend at least 2 years in Australia in order to be able to renew the RRV once the next 5 year period is up. You can apply for the RRVs online (the process is quite simple):

 

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/155-

 

In order to obtain citizenship you need to be able to show that:

 

- You must have 4 years lawful residence in Australia. The 4 year period must include 12 months as a permanent resident immediately before making an application for Australian citizenship

 

 

- You must not have been absent from Australia for more than one year in total, during the four year period, including no more than 90 days in the 12 months before applying.

 

The fact that your daughter is a citizen has no impact on the citizenship rules except that one of the exceptions to the residence rule is that if you have spent time outside Australia as a permanent resident with your Australian citizen spouse or partner, and have a close and continuing association with Australia, then that period of time may be treated as time spent in Australia. However, this is a really hard test to meet. Read this recent decision and you will see that this exception is hard to have applied:

 

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/AATA/2016/808.html