t2529 Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Hi everyone, I booked flights to see my parents in June/July in the UK. My 1 year RRV expires one week after I return in July. There is a risk that if I do go on this trip I might be delayed going home. I applied for my RRV earlier this week but if I don’t have this in place for whatever reason and am stranded in the UK, what are my options for returning to Australia? Also, I’m concerned that if I need to go home to look after my parents / lose my job I would jeopardise my chances of hitting citizenship residency requirement by August next year. Is there any sign from the government that they might be lenient on the residency requirement? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olloyd21 Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Interested to understand this too. Does anyone know if they are still approving citizenship applications in light of Covid19? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulhand Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 1 hour ago, t2529 said: Hi everyone, I booked flights to see my parents in June/July in the UK. My 1 year RRV expires one week after I return in July. There is a risk that if I do go on this trip I might be delayed going home. I applied for my RRV earlier this week but if I don’t have this in place for whatever reason and am stranded in the UK, what are my options for returning to Australia? Also, I’m concerned that if I need to go home to look after my parents / lose my job I would jeopardise my chances of hitting citizenship residency requirement by August next year. Is there any sign from the government that they might be lenient on the residency requirement? It’s a bit early to speculate to be honest. Always a risk to travel without an RRV in place and it’s hard to know where travel restrictions will be then or what the Department’s view will be. If you leave when things are already dodgy then it would be harder to justify not being able to return and there is no guarantee that visitor visas will be an option as they now are. A lot of people are having to make hard choices now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Paul is a very experienced migration agent so listen to him. If you leave the country without a RRV then you have no right to return. Not worth the risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amandahughes Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Hi all, Kind of related to the topic above. I was told they are ready to grant my 309 visa in January and am currently in Australia. I booked flights to Bali for early May and told Immigration of my plans. Now they are telling people in Australia not to travel overseas and the working holiday visa I am on expires on June 6. I am completely unsure what to do as they are cutting flights out of Australia dramatically and if I leave I may not be able to come back in for a while. Any advice would be hugely appreciated. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t2529 Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Marisawright said: Paul is a very experienced migration agent so listen to him. If you leave the country without a RRV then you have no right to return. Not worth the risk. Thanks , just to confirm I do have travel facility over and beyond my trip but not a huge buffer should I need to overstay in UK. Edited March 17, 2020 by t2529 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulhand Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 24 minutes ago, t2529 said: Thanks , just to confirm I do have travel facility over and beyond my trip but not a huge buffer should I need to overstay in UK. You will only know the day before you are due to leave whether it's a) possible and b) sensible. If you have already applied for a new RRV there a good chance it will be granted before you are scheduled to leave anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori21 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 I have a similar dilemma but I’m currently in the UK and have been for the past 3 years. The travel facility on my PR runs out in December 2020. My plan was to return to Australia in October 2020 and my flight is booked. Given what’s happening right now I’m unsure what to do. I’m worried that if there are still travel restrictions in place towards the latter part of the year I might not be able to return before my travel facility expires :( Hopefully if this situation does happen the Australian government will show leniency and allow those with expired travel facilities to return I’m tempted to bring my flight forward and leave soon, as in this week, but I feel I should stay here, incase the worse happens and god forbid family members becoming ill or worse —— Can anyone advise if it’s possible to apply for a RRV Outside Australia and prior to your current travel facility's expiry date? Would applying for one now and being unsuccessful effect my current PR status? It would be good to have peace of mind know I have a RRV in place. I do not meet the 2 out of 5 year residency requirement, so I would not get another 5 years, but even a 1 year RRV would help greatly. thanks all for any advice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulhand Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) 23 minutes ago, Lori21 said: Can anyone advise if it’s possible to apply for a RRV Outside Australia and prior to your current travel facility's expiry date? Would applying for one now and being unsuccessful effect my current PR status? It would be good to have peace of mind know I have a RRV in place. I do not meet the 2 out of 5 year residency requirement, so I would not get another 5 years, but even a 1 year RRV would help greatly. Yes to question 1 and no to question 2 Edited March 19, 2020 by paulhand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jojobluesox2 Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 Mine also runs out this December too Lori and I am panicking!Paul you replied to my post (thank you), if you have met the residence days, do they question about compelling reasons for being away if you have been away more than 3 months? (I read this somewhere). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulhand Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 3 minutes ago, Jojobluesox2 said: Mine also runs out this December too Lori and I am panicking! Paul you replied to my post (thank you), if you have met the residence days, do they question about compelling reasons for being away if you have been away more than 3 months? (I read this somewhere). No they don't - any reasons for absence only come into play after 5 years away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jojobluesox2 Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 No they don't - any reasons for absence only come into play after 5 years away. Ok thank you, would it be more likely I get 1 yr or 5 yr? I am trying to decide if to apply now (so would extend me to April 2021 if with 1 yr, or to leave it couple months as mine expires Dec 2020 (so to maximise the length to get back to Aus with this mess going on). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t2529 Posted April 7, 2020 Author Share Posted April 7, 2020 Hi guys, I’ve now received a 1 year extension to my RRV meaning, in theory, I could leave Australia today and return in early April 2021 with no problems. This is obviously good news because my RRV was originally due to expire in July 2020. The only issue I now have is that if I was going to leave and not return before at least December 2020, I’d scupper my citizenship residency requirement. It may be that the economy doesn’t pick up in Australia until say March next year, so I’d like the option to be able to leave Australia until such times as the situation has improved, without jeopardising citizenship. Is there any signal from DoH that they’ll allow you exemptions on economic grounds for going past the 90 days in the PR qualifying year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rammygirl Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 12 hours ago, Jojobluesox2 said: Ok thank you, would it be more likely I get 1 yr or 5 yr? I am trying to decide if to apply now (so would extend me to April 2021 if with 1 yr, or to leave it couple months as mine expires Dec 2020 (so to maximise the length to get back to Aus with this mess going on). If you meet the two years residence in the last 5 then you should automatically get a 5 year RRV it will start immediately and probably only take a couple of weeks to process. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 18 minutes ago, t2529 said: The only issue I now have is that if I was going to leave and not return before at least December 2020, I’d scupper my citizenship residency requirement. It may be that the economy doesn’t pick up in Australia until say March next year, so I’d like the option to be able to leave Australia until such times as the situation has improve The question would be, where do you think you could go, where the economy would be any better? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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