A Permanent residency status entitles a person to remain in Australia indefinitely.

Permanent residency status is always granted throughh a visa. However, the visa itself is simply a travel authority that allows the holder of the visa to fly in and out of Australia for up to 5 years while maintaining your permanent status. If you are in Australia when your visa expires, you are still a permanent resident andyou would never need another visa, if you decided to stay in Australia (without any travelling).

However, if you are overseas when your visa expires, or you leave Australia after the travel facility on your visa has expired, then your permanent residency status will cease. In this case, if you want to continue to travel overseas after your visa expires, then you need to apply for a Resident Return Visa or obtain Australian Citizenship and an Australian passport.

To obtain Australian citizenship, you must be the holder of a Permanent Resident visa in the last 12 months before lodging an application for Australian Citizenship and you must have been in Australia for a minimum of four years in total on a substantive visa, in order to meet the residency requirements for Australian Citizenship.

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