Australian citizenship: the residence requirement and your absences
To apply for Australian citizenship by conferral, you need to have lived in Australia on a valid visa for the 4 years before you apply, held a permanent visa for the last 12 months of them, and been absent for no more than 12 months in total — including no more than 90 days in the last 12 months.
Citizenship absences calculator
Add up the days you were outside Australia — FlySee’s export lists your trips with dates.
The general residence requirement
When you apply for Australian citizenship by conferral, you must:
- have been living in Australia on a valid visa for 4 years immediately before the day you apply;
- have held a permanent visa for the last 12 months immediately before the day you apply; and
- not have been absent from Australia for more than 12 months in total in those 4 years, including no more than 90 days in total in the 12 months immediately before applying.
Children under 16 don’t need to meet the general residence requirement, but must be permanent residents.
Worked example
In the 4 years before you apply you were away 200 days in total, 60 of them in the last 12 months: both are within the limits. Had the last 12 months held 95 days away, you’d wait until enough of them fell outside the 12 months before applying.
Leaving Australia meanwhile
If you travel after your permanent visa’s travel facility ends, you need a Resident Return visa to come back as a permanent resident — see the Resident Return visa.
How FlySee counts it
FlySee doesn’t have an Australian citizenship tracker yet. Its Log records your days in and out of Australia and rebuilds past trips from your photos, and its export lists your trips with dates. The calculator above checks your totals against the limits; it counts 12 months as 365 days, the careful side.