Some of you may know I flew back to UK for family reasons. I’m British, living in Oz. Been here 10 years. Permanent resident, just done my citizenship test, have my ceremony in June. All good.

So flew back into Oz last night. Got taken through to immigration. Turns out you have to renew your “permanent residency” visa after 5 years if you want to leave the country. I didn’t know this, and it wasn’t mentioned by immigration when I left Oz (with a return ticket).

So after a nice chat with immigration, he granted me a 30 day visa to come home, and I have 30 days in which to re-apply for my PR visa, otherwise I’ll be “an illegal” and deported. Didn’t really see the humour in my sarcasm of a temporary permanent resident, or the “is your job permanant? or do you have to re=apply for that every five years?” (I was tired and grumpy and just flown from UK. My sarcasm doesn’t usually go down well at the best of times.

So knackered and tired I re applied for my PR visa. My citizenship ceremony is 2 weeks after my temporary visa expires. Had to pay $400 for the privellige (this is on top of the 2 457 visas I paid for, the PR visa I paid for, and the citizenship I paid for me, and my famalam.)

Ah. That felt better.

Criminal.

ah yes, I was heading out to the US a couple of years back and was informed I’d need to pay to get back in….

And yes there is no way of them to tell you they just expect that you know.

Still cheaper than the UK by a fair margin.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-regulations-revised-table/home-office-immigration-and-nationality-fees-2018

yeah but having just spent 2.5k for the flight, plus car hire, food, diesel, another 400 on top was just not what i needed. but c’est la vie

Still cheaper than the UK by a fair margin.

I think you have missed all the other fee’s that have been paid before

mikewsmith

Subscriber
Still cheaper than the UK by a fair margin.

I think you have missed all the other fee’s that have been paid before

Yeah the bit that smarts is the fact immigration didn’t mention anything when I left (with a return ticket 8 days later) and the fact the temp visa runs out 2 weeks before my citizenship ceremony. Technically I’m a citizen but I have to attend the ceremony for it to be complete and sorted. So on top of the numerous visas I’d already paid for (for me, wife and 2 kids), that extra $400 made me feel a bit “ahh ffs….”. And cos my visit home was for entirely good reasons – not a holiday per se.

Also my wrong assumption that a permanent resident meant I lived here, permanently.

Life’s sh!t sometimes. Just gotta roll with it.

Best not leave the house for the two weeks between visa expiry and citizenship ceremony.
😏

Also my wrong assumption that a permanent resident meant I lived here, permanently.

Life’s sh!t sometimes. Just gotta roll with it.

Yeah, kind of how I got to with it all, I had everything lined up for citizenship but couldn’t find the passport I arrived on, left it till next tax refund and then got a job back here – still my right to return goes all the way to 2022

Make sure you remember all the words to the song for the party day!! Well done on getting it sorted and enjoy a cold one when it’s all done

Didn’t really see the humour in my sarcasm

Did you think being sarcastic to someone who can completely **** you over was going to help things?

Did you think being sarcastic to someone who can completely **** you over was going to help things?

normally aussie immigration are a bit of a laugh, not as good as the Kiwi’s but still up for some banter

hols2

Member

You didn’t read bit that said he’d already granted my 30 day visa did you…. It was after that I was sarcy. But in a nice way, not a “you’re a Xunt” kind of way. You know, like we play here on STW, usually. :p I wasn’t taking the piss out of him, just pulling the piss out of the terminology used. He got it. The wry smile gave it away. It was already sorted before I landed anyway.He was expecting me. If there were gonna be problems, they wouldn’t have given me the OK to fly from Brum.

And, the PR extension came through a minute after I paid. I got the first email to say thanks for paying, and 1 minute later I got the “huzzah, you’re not going to Manus Island” email.

He was expecting me. If there were gonna be problems, they wouldn’t have given me the OK to fly from Brum.

yeah, they lost me when I went to NZ once, left Hobart on a single flight as I wasn’t sure if I was going home via Brisbane until a few days into the holiday.
You can’t go to NZ without a visa
It’s OK I’m PR here
No visa in your passport
They stopped doing that years ago, it’s OK I have the Visa grant letter on my phone
That isn’t for this passport…
Note got added to the file that I was willing to fund my own return, Kiwi’s as usual said welcome have a great time, leaving Oz the Immi guys were planning a strike but the government upped the threat level to stop them so we had work to rule going on.

On the way home at Roto airport at 5am,
How did you get to NZ, was it by boat?
Nah flew in 10 days ago (still had the bag tags on)
Are you sure, computer has no record of you leaving Aus
Yeah showed my flight emails etc.
Hmmm, few trips to the back office and then a long call to Canberra to confirm a few things and – They will deal with you in Sydney

All good fun really

Does marrying an Australian, make you Australian?
Asking for a friend.

there is no way of them to tell you they just expect that you know.

Surely the expectation on the individual is reasonable? I mean you will have looked into all the residency status stuff etc already?

I feel your pain. I once went to sydney for the day from wgtn. Return landed just after midnight and at passport control was informed my returning residents visa had expired … at midnight. Excellent. Let me in but it cost me just over a grand to fix !

So knackered and tired I re applied for my PR visa. My citizenship ceremony is 2 weeks after my temporary visa expires. Had to pay $400 for the privellige (this is on top of the 2 457 visas I paid for, the PR visa I paid for, and the citizenship I paid for me, and my famalam.)

Ah, the PR/ citizenship dance – I had to do it myself this year (Canada). I applied for citizenship last January, and my PR (card) expired at the beginning of March this year. Although my PR status was still valid, without the card you can’t travel.

So I applied for the PR card renewal in March and paid the money. 2 days later, got confirmation of my test date for citizenship. New PR card turned up 2 weeks after the citizenship test, just in time for me to surrender it at the citizenship confirmation ceremony. Utterly pointless, but sod’s law innit

Does marrying an Australian, make you Australian?
Asking for a friend.

There are forms…. Drop me a message if you want to know more… But I think whisky Craig should be the local expert by now 🙂

Surely the expectation on the individual is reasonable? I mean you will have looked into all the residency status stuff etc already?

I read through everything I got when my pr was granted, I re read it all when I split with my ex as it was a partner visa, and I read it after the 5 year renewal sting came through, it’s not mentioned in any of it. Its deep in the immi website but that would require you to know it existed. It only kicks in when your passport is scanned by border farce though luckily I found out on the way out so I could sort it while away.

Ah… Anyways. Aussie citizen now. And now I need to get 3 aussie passports. More expense yay.

Congrats on your citizenship, must be a bit of a relief. We have another 18 months to go before that process. The four of us are going back to UK at Christmas so need to get RRVs – I have one that expires in Sept. Do you know what the process is for a family RRV application, i.e. can you roll it up into one or do you have to do 4 separate applications and link them somehow?

Whinging poms.

aphex_2k

Member

Ah… Anyways. Aussie citizen now. And now I need to get 3 aussie passports. More expense yay.

Congrats! When I was a kid I thought one of the coolest things you could have in life was multiple passports, and it still has a Bond-esque feeling choosing which passport to travel on.
“Today, I shall be… well, me, but with a different nationality”.
Does Oz limit the number of nationalities you can have, btw? Or is it just certain countries – “you can’t be a Pom and an Ozzie, mahte, it’s just not roight”, or “nah, you can’t be a Kiwi AND an Ozzie, you’re one or the other!”

Congrats!

We are almost in the same position as you: Have waited to get a date for our citizenship test for about 10 months……. just been given a date: its the day we fly home to the UK for a visit 🙁

We are trying to reschedule.

Based on your experience, I’ve just checked our PR: the “must not arrive after” date is in 2020, so we have got some slack!

Both my kids were born here whilst we had PR, so are automatically dual citizens. The youngest’s UK passport should be arriving today! Exciting stuff!

Returning residents visas…. Well… I didn’t get one, which was why I got stung coming back from the UK as I wasn’t aware a perm resident needed one, and it wasn’t mentioned when I left the country, with my return ticket an all that…..

Citizenship test is a doddle. The “interview” is just them collating paperwork and taking photos. For me and the missus, there was no “interview” as such. I guess they had enough info from me from 2 x 457 visas, 1 x perm res visa, and then the citizenship application. The ceremony needs to be done within 12 months of the test, but your local council should run a few of these through the year.

So we’re still rocking UK passports (apart from my daughter who was born here in Oz). We will ultimately get family Aus passports.

Oddly though I’ve recently been considering a move to Canada. I’m not sure I’ll be able to convince the missus though.