Citizenship & Resident Return Visas
Superior Advice: Intelligent Solutions
Australian Citizenship
&
Resident Return Visa (RRV)
On this page you will learn how we can help you with:
Apply for Citizenship and Resident Return Visas Australia (Temporary and Permanent)
Australian Citizenship
Australian citizenship symbolises our unity as a nation. It represents a commitment to Australia and it’s people, the values we share and our common future. AR LAW Services: Master Migration & Citizenship Lawyers has assisted many clients secure their dream of Australian citizenship and the chance to call Australian home.
I recently used AR Law Services to help with me some issues relating to my citizenship application. Anthony was very helpful and I wished I had gone to him with my application in the first place, which would have saved me a lot of time and stress. I would happily recommend him.
Pauline Robert
Mr Anthony Robinson is my family’s lawyer and has been managing our protection visa application. Recently he won ”citizenship” for my daughter. it was a complex case because although she was born here my husband and I are from overseas: so she was not considered to be an Australian citizen even-though she was born here. We are so happy and have no hesitation in recommending AR LAW Services.
Happy Happy
The Steps to Citizenship
There are a number of ways applicants can apply for citizenship. Determining the right one for you depends on your eligibility.
You may be eligible for Australian citizenship if you are a:
Migrant who has obtained permanent resident status;
Spouse or partner of an Australian citizen;
Child of an Australian citizen or a former Australian citizen;
Refugee or humanitarian applicant;
Former Australian citizen looking to resume citizenship; or
Citizen of New Zealand.
You maybe eligible for citizenship:
Be a migrant who is a permanent resident;
Satisfy the residency requirement;
Reside, or continue to reside in Australia; and
Be of good character if you are 18 years of age or older.
AR LAW Services, will help you ever step of the way of your applicants with the following:
Preparation and lodgement of citizenship applications for general eligibility
Preparation and lodgement of citizenship applications with Ministerial requests
Responding to character requisitions on citizenship applications
Citizenship resumption
Evidence of Citizenship
So if you have a dream to become an Australia Citizen, talk to us.
Australian Citizenship Test
To become an Australian citizen, you must pass the Australian citizenship test. The test consists of 20 multiple choice questions and is administered in the English language. You must answer at least 75 percent of the questions correctly in order to pass the test. However, if you fail, you may be given another opportunity to take the test. Your citizenship application covers the cost of the citizenship exam. The exam may be taken on a computer at a designated testing centre. Test centres are located throughout the country and likely there is one near you.
Citizenship Exam
To prepare for the citizenship exam, it is important to learn about the Australian government and culture as well as day-to-day living. You may be tested on the following:
- Australia and its people. The history of indigenous Australians as well as the modern history of Australian migrants and the English colonization.
- Australia’s democratic beliefs, rights and liberties. Learn the values of Australian society from participation on government to the rights and freedoms protected by law.
- Government and the law in Australia. Australia is technically a constitutional monarchy but is also considered a liberal democracy. Learn the branches of government and the process of laws.
Resident Return visa
Only Australian citizens have an automatic right of entry to Australia. If you are a non-citizen traveling abroad and would like to return to Australia you are required to have a visa to re-enter the country. Normally, permanent residents (PR) can use their permanent resident visa to travel abroad and return to Australia for up to five years from the date the visa was granted. After five years, permanent resident must obtain a Five Year Resident Return visa in order to re-enter the country.
To apply for this visa you must have spent 2 years, within the last 5 living in Australia and be:
- an Australian permanent resident
- a former Australian permanent resident whose last permanent visa was not cancelled
- a former Australian citizen who lost or resigned your citizenship. For example, because you became a national of another country that did not allow double citizenship.
To apply – Expired visa – out of time.
Resident Return visas (subclass 155) are usually valid for 5 years if you meet the two year residence requirements or hold substantial business, cultural, employment or personal ties to Australia.
If that is not your case, but you have a strong need to travel internationally you may qualify for a Resident Return visa valid for only 3 months (subclass 157). For example, if you have a family member who is severely ill.
If your passport expires your visa does not become invalid. You may choose to pay the additional processing fees to have it re-issued and stamped in your new passport or travel with both passports-the old one that contains your Resident Return visa and the new one.
Procedure
You can apply for a Resident Return visa from inside or outside Australia.
You can also apply online or by postal mail filing Form 1085.
You will need to supply supporting documentation to prove:
- Your identity: Certified copies of your passport;AND
- Your immigration status: Evidence of your current or former permanent resident visa;OR
Your ties with Australia.
Australia Brief History:
The first recorded European contact with Australia was in March 1606, when Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon (1571–1638) charted the west coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. Later that year, the Spanish explorer Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the strait separating Australia and Papua New Guinea. Over the next two centuries, European explorers and traders continued to chart the coastline of Australia, then known as New Holland. In 1688, William Dampier became the first British explorer to land on the Australian north west coast. It was not until 1770 that another Englishman, Captain James Cook, aboard the Endeavour, extended a scientific voyage to the South Pacific in order to further chart the east coast of Australia and claim it for the British Crown.
Britain decided to use its new outpost as a penal colony. The First Fleet of 11 ships carried about 1500 people – half of them convicts. The fleet arrived in Sydney Harbour on 26 January 1788, and it is on this day every year that Australia Day is celebrated.
About 160 000 men and women were brought to Australia as convicts from 1788 until penal transportation ended in 1868. The convicts were joined by free immigrants beginning in the early 1790s. The wool industry and the gold rushes of the 1850s provided an impetus for increasing numbers of free settlers to come to Australia.
Scarcity of labour, the vastness of the land and new wealth based on farming, mining and trade made Australia a land of opportunity. Yet during this period Indigenous Australians suffered enormously. Death, illness, displacement and dispossession disrupted traditional lifestyles and practices.
A nation is born
The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 through the federation of six states under a single constitution. The non-Indigenous population at the time of Federation was 3.8 million, while the estimated Indigenous population was around 93,000. Half of the people lived in cities, three-quarters were born in Australia, and the majority were of English, Scottish or Irish descent.
The founders of the new nation believed they were creating something new and were concerned to avoid the pitfalls of the old world. They wanted Australia to be harmonious, united and egalitarian, and had progressive ideas about human rights, the observance of democratic procedures and the value of a secret ballot.
One of the first acts of the new Commonwealth Parliament was to pass the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, which limited migration to people of primarily European origin. This was dismantled progressively after the Second World War. Today Australia has a global, non-discriminatory policy and is home to people from more than 200 countries.
The Australian Citizenship Act 2007
The Australian Citizenship Act 2007 is the legal basis for all citizenship provisions. It commenced on 1 July 2007. It was amended by the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Testing) Act 2007 in September 2007.
Legislation and regulations are not published on this department’s website, but can be accessed from a legal information retrieval system owned by the Australian Attorney General’s Department.
So if you have a dream to become an Australia Citizen, talk to us.
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Not what you are looking for?
Be advised the Information on this website does not constitute legal advice nor personal/corporate migration advice and should not be treated as such. It is information of a general nature and should not be relied on. For an assessment of your personal circumstances and formal legal/visa advice please speak to our accredited Immigration Lawyer.
