Nasty rumour

[belter]

I heard a terrible rumour that if you leave Australia as a naturalised citizen you have to return within 10 years or you lose your citizenship. Has anyone heard this, I can’t find any evidence online to say it’s true"?

[rammygirl]

Nope

[Marisawright]

No it's not true.

It probably comes from confusiong about permanent residency.  A lot of people think that once you're a permanent resident you can stay out of Australia for as long as you like, because that used to be the case.   

[Quoll]

Nope, once you have the passport in your hot clammy little hand you can do as you like.  It used to be the case that if you took out another citizenship that you lost your Australian citizenship but that was rescinded about 20 years ago now.  I agree that there is probably confusion with PR and citizenship here and, yes, PRs can lose their ability to live in Australia if they are away for years.

[belter]

Thanks everyone I suspected it was a lot of rubbish but I had to ask.

[wrussell]

Quote

 It used to be the case that if you took out another citizenship that you lost your Australian citizenship but that was rescinded about 20 years ago now.

The Murdoch amendments.