How long does someone have to be a permanent resident of Australia before they can become a citizen?
Australian permanent residents who have been conferred citizenship have the same rights and privileges as any other Australian citizen, including the right to vote, to work for the Australian Public Service or Defence Force, and to obtain and use an Australian passport. You must have lawfully resided in Australia for at least four years, and have been a permanent resident for at least the last 12 months before applying.
Permanent Residents of Australia have less rights and entitlements in terms of "protect, provide and converse." "Protect" stands for cases of personal and international security. Say if you are in a natural disaster, then your country usually will be obliged to send aid to you. "Provide" stands for taking care of your welfare in times of need, or allowing you assistance to grow the country's financial or political influence, or simply just to travel using the Australian passport through authorised areas of the world such as embassies. "Converse" stands for taking your enquiries, responding to you and taking public polls to elect collective choice of leadership. Ultimately, this is you voting for a person or party that represents you in the government. The current general rules to become an Australian citizen is for a person to: (i) have held a valid visa and lived in Australia for 3 years in the last 4 years; (ii) have held Permanent Residence in the last 12 months and not been outside of Australia for more than 90 days. If you are unable to comply with this, there may be special residence requirements that may qualify you for a successful citizenship application.
No, not the same rights and entitlements in certain aspects. Voting, right to certain government benefits like NDIS care and government job opportunities or fee-help for children attending universities will only be accessible by citizens of Australia. To become an Australian citizen, you will need to show at least 4 years of residence in Australia on a substantive visa prior to lodging your citizenship application and to prove at least 1 year of permanent residence. Eg: if you only first arrived in Australia using your PR visa, you will need to clock in 4 years of residence to apply for citizenship with no more than a total of 1 year absent from Australia. However, if you have been living here on temporary visas for 3+ years and then continued living in Australia as a PR for 1 year, you may be eligible for citizenship too. It therefore depends on each person's situation.
Australian citizens have certain rights which permanent residents don’t have, such as the right to vote in federal or state elections, can serve in the Australian military, can serve on a jury and can apply for jobs in the Australian Government Public Service, and serve as a member of Parliament. In addition, citizens can apply for children born overseas to become citizens by descent, and citizens are eligible to apply for an Australian passport and can re-enter Australia, whereas permanent residence can expire if living overseas for many years.
Permanent residents of Australia do not have the same rights and entitlements as Australian citizens. A permanent resident cannot have an Australian passport, cannot vote in Australian Government elections, cannot access student loans, cannot join the Australian Defence Force, cannot obtain ongoing work in the Australian Government, and cannot return to Australia from overseas without a valid travel facility (you do not have an automatic right of entry to Australia). To become a citizen of Australia, one must be a permanent resident of Australia, living in Australia on a valid visa for the past 4 years, and also have been a permanent resident for the past 12 months. Further, one must not have been away from Australia for more than 12 months in total in the past 4 years, including not more than 90 days in total in the past 12 months.
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