The wife and I are legally married. At this stage we have no intention of living in oz but wanted to know what the 'ins and outs' of getting citizenship for her and an oz passport. Would we have to live there or can just visit on a holiday to achieve this?

 

My daughter has citizenship and an oz passport. So much easier to travel on when vising Europe etc.

 

Thanks for any opinions

She has to get residence in Australia and having lived there then, and only then, can she become a citizen and get an Australian passport. A multi-year exercise mostly spent in Australia. Plenty of information on the Australian government immigration web site. By way of example because of the processing backlog a friend of mine gained permanent residence using a "spouse" visa after four years. I think it's a minimum two year wait before the citizenship application, which then faces a further processing backlog

Edited August 11, 20197 yr by ThaiBunny

Yes you are right she has to get Australian residence she will be able to become PR after 2 years

and yes the spouse visa is the best way to do it I done the same many years ago and yes she has

to live in Australia most of the time while waiting for PR and most people think she will not have

medical cover(Medicare) is not true my wife(now ex) had some medical care covered as soon she

arrived in Australia and after living in Australia for a few years she applied for citizenship and 

had to do a written test she has to be able to speak English which is one of the conditions but

a lot has changed during the years I would inquire at the Australian embassy website but I think

it is pointless to become Australian citizen if you don't want to live there she can get a Schengen  

visa but obviously she needs to prove she has the finance and and medical insurance and a 

sponsor will help

I went through this process recently (I am Aus Citizen and so are our 2 kids).

 

We were certain this would be a 3 year process to get PR (start on Spouse Visa first then after 2 years apply for PR)

 

However (and this is gold) there is a little known point in the rules whereby if you meet certain criteria in your relationship (can’t temember the exact criteria but essentially shows you are obviously in a genuine and long term committed relationship) then you skip the Spouse Visa part and go directly to PR.

 

To cut a long story short we thought it would be a 3 year process to get PR for my wife....in the end it took just 8 months from beginning to end.

 

We used a visa agent and it was worth every penny. To be honest though even the visa agent (a good and well known one) didn’t know about that fast track rule. 

1 hour ago, bowerboy said:

I went through this process recently (I am Aus Citizen and so are our 2 kids).

 

We were certain this would be a 3 year process to get PR (start on Spouse Visa first then after 2 years apply for PR)

 

However (and this is gold) there is a little known point in the rules whereby if you meet certain criteria in your relationship (can’t temember the exact criteria but essentially shows you are obviously in a genuine and long term committed relationship) then you skip the Spouse Visa part and go directly to PR.

 

To cut a long story short we thought it would be a 3 year process to get PR for my wife....in the end it took just 8 months from beginning to end.

 

We used a visa agent and it was worth every penny. To be honest though even the visa agent (a good and well known one) didn’t know about that fast track rule. 

Thanks for the info. Did you have to reside in Oz during this process?

Nobody is mentioning the substantial cost.

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-finder/join-family

19 hours ago, bowerboy said:

However (and this is gold) there is a little known point in the rules whereby if you meet certain criteria in your relationship (can’t temember the exact criteria but essentially shows you are obviously in a genuine and long term committed relationship) then you skip the Spouse Visa part and go directly to PR.

I think we'd all be fascinated by further details. How, for example, did you stumble across something even your visit agent didn't know?

Quite a few have on here have gone straight to PR without the 2 year waiting period.

 

It's on here somewhere so I'll try and dig it up later.

Pretty much depends on the length of the relationship and if there are kids (Aussie Citizens)

involved by memory.

 

 

22 hours ago, bowerboy said:

However (and this is gold) there is a little known point in the rules whereby if you meet certain criteria in your relationship (can’t temember the exact criteria but essentially shows you are obviously in a genuine and long term committed relationship) then you skip the Spouse Visa part and go directly to PR.

 

To cut a long story short we thought it would be a 3 year process to get PR for my wife....in the end it took just 8 months from beginning to end.

 

We used a visa agent and it was worth every penny. To be honest though even the visa agent (a good and well known one) didn’t know about that fast track rule. 

 

Your agent as it seems to be the case with a lot of them wasn't very good if they didn't know about this policy. It's been in place for years.

 

It's even on the immigration website. 

 

It's up to the discretion of the department to waive the temporary waiting period. 

 

If you are in a long-term relationship you might be granted the permanent visa within less than 2 years, 

 

The exact definition of long-term relationship per the Migration Regulations 1998 is:

 

long-term partner relationship,in relation to an applicant for a visa, means a relationship between the applicant and another person, each as the spouse or de facto partner of the other, that has continued:
(a) if there is a dependent child (other than a step-child) of both the applicant and the other person — for not less than 2 years; or
(b) in any other case — for not less than 3 years.

 

Edited August 12, 20197 yr by PhanomR

On 8/11/2019 at 5:33 PM, advancebooking said:

Thanks for the info. Did you have to reside in Oz during this process?

Yes if you want citizenship need 4years time in Aust minimum to apply. 

Great time to head to oz and upgrade you're family to first world with the dollar getting crushed with forecasting looking grim . Best of luck

Dont forget the cost is over 10k AUD now as well. .. Cost was just 3k when the wife got her's!