Residence and Portability screens 106-06020020

The datalink with the Department of Home Affairs is activated through the Immigration Enquiry (RSIMME) screen. Information available from 1 September 1994 to date will:

• be recorded on the residence screens automatically
• have a Channel code of 'IMM' to indicate the information has come directly from the Immigration Datalink

Immigration provided information cannot be overwritten, except by authorised Service Officers in Centrelink International Services (CIS).

There are a number of screens which:

• record residence information for assessment by the system
• help staff to determine various aspects of residence, such as time spent inside Australia

There may be multiple pages on some screens, This depends on the number of times a person travels outside Australia or the number of changes to visas and/or citizenship since arrival or since 1 September 1994. The limitations are:

• Movement information is only held for customers from 1 September 1994 and Australian citizenship information is generally only available from 2001
• The customer may need to provide information about residence before 1994. In some circumstances they may need to provide a passport number to help verify the immigration information

Datalink unsuccessful

The customer or child may still have an immigration record. It could be that:

• the customer or child's name on their immigration record is not a perfect match with any names recorded on their Customer Personal Details Summary (CPDS) screen, or
• multiple matching immigration records have been found

The system will create a Manual Follow-up (MFU) activity for CIS if the customer or child should have an immigration record but no matching record has been automatically found.

If actioning a new claim, the RSIMME screen will present if appropriate. Alternatively, manual requests can be made outside a new claim activity or during a reassessment by selecting the RSIMME screen.

Activate the Immigration Datalink.

The RSIMME screen is also used to record residence details for a dependent child when the child has their own person (PER) record. To activate the datalink, the same actions as outlined above are needed.

If a child does not have their own PER record, go to the Child Selection (CHS) screen in the customer's record to which the child is linked. 'S'elect the relevant child, enter 'CHIMME' in the Nxt: field and go to the RSIMME screen.

The RSLEG screen is used to record:

• a customer's legal residence status
• country of citizenship
• Assurance of Support indicator
• New Zealand residence status
• visa details (if not an Australian citizen)

When the Immigration Datalink is successful, the customer's visa details since 1 September 1994 will automatically record on this screen.

The Visa qualifier code field displays additional visa information where visa subclass alone cannot determine qualification, for instance, holders of visa subclass 403. This information will be available through the Immigration Datalink.

The New Zealand residence status will also be automatically assessed and recorded for all except transitional cases.

Citizenship of a country that is not Australia will generally need to be manually recorded.

If the Immigration Datalink is not successful, manually record necessary details on this screen.

The system uses the information from the RSLEG screen and cross-references it with the Country of Residence (CRES) screen, movement information from the Customer Advised Travel Details (RSCD) and/or Immigration Advised Movements (RSIM) screen to determine a customer's entitlement to Australian payments.

Details of a child's legal residence status are recorded on the Child Legal Residence Details (CHRSLEG) screen, which is accessed through the Child Selection (CHS) screen on the linked customer's record. Coding CHRSLEG is not mandatory.

For more information on the RSLEG and CHRSLEG screens, see Recording legal residence status.

The CRES screen is used to record the country where the customer is living and has lived on a long-term basis. The country of residence coded on this screen does not necessarily have to be the country where the customer has been a legal resident. It should include countries where the customer has or had the intention to live on a long-term basis. If a short period (less than 12 months) is recorded, consider the possibility that the customer may have been in that country for a holiday, in which case do not record it.

A child's country of residence information is recorded on the Child Country of Residence (CHCRES) screen, which is accessed through the Child Selection (CHS) screen on a linked customer's record. Coding CHCRES is not mandatory.

See Coding the CRES, ARD and RSS screens for more information.

This screen automatically records the customer's absences from Australia since 1 September 1994, with information from their immigration record. Only Service Officers in Centrelink International Services (CIS) can update these details if:

• the customer disputes the information recorded, or
• a Service Officer has reason to believe the data is incorrect or incomplete

See Referring inconsistencies in overseas departure and arrival information to Centrelink International Services (CIS).

The information on this screen will be used along with the Customer Advised Travel Details (RSCD) screen information to:

• calculate presence in Australia to determine a Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period (NARWP)
• assess portability of a customer's payment, and
• indicate whether a customer was in Australia at the time a claim was lodged

It should also be used to help with the assessment of a customer's residence in Australia.

This screen also displays the Immigration Limiting Date (ILD). The ILD is the date from which the system will use immigration data.

The ILD is set when a successful immigration match is made. This date is manually set and can be manually changed to an earlier date.

A child's immigration advised movements are accessed through the Child Immigration Advised Movements (CHRSIM) screen, which is accessed through the Child Selection (CHS) screen on the linked customer's record.

This screen allows:

• the recording of a departure from Australia
• a change in country of location while overseas or an expected return to Australia as advised by the customer
• a Service Officer to record a portability reason, such as a holiday

Access to code certain portability reasons is restricted to specialist officers in CIS, for example when:

• an approved reason has been granted, or
• a discretionary portability extension has been granted when a customer cannot return due to unforeseen circumstances

A child's advised absences and reasons for travel can be recorded on the Child Customer Advised Travel Details (CHRSCD) screen, which is accessed through the Child Selection (CHS) on the linked customer's record.

See Coding and viewing the RSCD, TOAD and TOAS portability screens.

This screen displays summarised departure and return data for assessment purposes. It navigates to the Travel Outside Australia Details (TOAD) screen.

Travel Outside Australia Summary details for children can be accessed from the Child Outside Australia Summary (CHTOAS) screen.

If a customer or child's first movement is an arrival in Australia, it is not displayed on this screen. See the Immigration Advised Movements (RSIM)/Child Immigration Advised Movements (CHRSIM) screen instead.

See Coding and viewing the RSCD, TOAD and TOAS portability screens

This screen displays customer and immigration advised travel details.

It also displays 'Portability Reason' for travel, for example, discretionary extensions or approved temporary absences. Note: only Service Officers in CIS can code most of these reasons.

For Disability Support Pension (DSP) customers only the DSP Portability Calculator is accessed from this screen (if entering TOAD in Next navigates to TOAS, either enter TOAD in Next again or select one of the hyperlinked dates to get to the TOAD screen).

Travel details advised for children can be found on the Child Travel Outside Australia Details (CHTOAD) screen.

See Coding and viewing the RSCD, TOAD and TOAS portability screens.

This screen is used to compare the time a customer has spent inside Australia with time they have spent outside Australia. It is based on the movement details recorded on the Immigration Advised Movements (RSIM) and Customer Advised Travel Details (RSCD) screens.

This screen provides a calculation of a customer's physical presence in Australia. Use it to help establish whether a customer was residing in Australia during a particular period. It can be useful when establishing historical and working life residence.

This screen compares country of location history for two different customer records in the same environment for review purposes. Both customer and child records can be compared in this way.

The RSPAR screen displays the customer's:

• total Australian working life residence (WLR)
• total Australian historical residence, and
• total Australian presence while an Australian resident

Information on RSPAR is derived from the Country of Residence (CRES), Legal Residence Details (RSLEG) and absences from Australia from both the Customer Advised Travel Details (RSCD) and Immigration Advised Movements (RSIM) screens. All fields except the Date of Effect: are display only. The Date of Effect: field can be used to display residence information for periods in the past or for possible future dates.

Note: this screen may incorrectly display an additional year of Australian historical residence when a person has acquired Australian citizenship. Cross-check the calculation on this screen with the date of grant of Australian citizenship to ensure it is correct. If an extra year is calculating and this impacts payment qualification, escalate to the CIS Helpdesk for correction.

The RSAHR screen is a display only screen. It displays the customer's Australian historical residence derived from information recorded on the Country of Residence (CRES) and Legal Residence Details (RSLEG) screens. It displays each individual period of residence including relevant start and end dates, number of years, months and days and total historical residence.

Note: this screen may incorrectly display an additional year of Australian historical residence when a person has acquired Australian citizenship. Cross-check the calculation on this screen with the date of grant of Australian citizenship to ensure it is correct. If an extra year is calculating and this impacts payment qualification, escalate to the CIS Helpdesk for correction.

The RSPAP screen is a display only screen. It displays the periods the customer has been physically present in Australia while an Australian resident. That is, a legal permanent resident who is also residing in Australia. The information is derived from the Legal Residence Details (RSLEG) and Country of Residence (CRES) screens and from absences from Australia recorded on the Customer Advised Travel Details (RSCD) and Immigration Advised Movements (RSIM) screens.

The screen also displays the total Australian presence while a customer was a resident of Australia and either:

• the projected end date of the Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period (NARWP) if that date is in the future, or
• the actual date the customer has met the NARWP

Note: this screen may incorrectly display an additional year of Australian historical residence when a person has acquired Australian citizenship. Cross-check the calculation on this screen with the date of grant of Australian citizenship to ensure it is correct. If an extra year is calculating and this impacts payment qualification, escalate to the CIS Helpdesk for correction.

The AWLR screen is a display only screen. It displays the customer's working life residence in Australia between age 16 and the relevant Australian Age Pension age.

Information on this screen is derived from the Country of Residence (CRES) and Legal Residence Details (RSLEG) screens.

The RSRD screen displays a summary of the customer's residence.

• The Date of Residence Assessment: field can be used to display the customer's residence information for a particular date
• The Country of Residence (CRES): field displays the country in which the customer is residing as recorded on the CRES screen
• The Country of Location (TOAS): field displays the country where the customer is physically present as recorded on the Immigration Advised Movements (RSIM) and/or Customer Advised Travel Details (RSCD) screen
• The Agreement Country: field indicates if the customer is paid under an international agreement as recorded on the Additional Residence Details (ARD) screen. This field will be blank if the customer is not paid under an international agreement
• The Australian Resident: field indicates whether the customer is an Australian resident from information recorded on the Legal Residence Details (RSLEG) and CRES screens
• The SCV residing in Australia: field indicates whether the customer is in Australia on a New Zealand passport Special Category visa (SCV). This field will be recorded for both protected and non-protected SCV holders
• The SPL/FAO Temporary Visa: field indicates the customer has a temporary visa which qualifies them for certain payments (from information recorded on the RSLEG screen)
• The Permanent Visa: field indicates the customer is the holder of a permanent resident visa from information recorded on the RSLEG screen
• The QRE Visa (Refugee): field indicates the customer has qualifying residence exemption as the holder of a refugee (permanent protection) visa from information recorded on the RSLEG and RSS screen
• The QRE Visa (partner/Inter dep): field indicates the customer has a visa which entitles them to a qualifying residence exemption for any income support payment or concession, with the exception of Age Pension or Disability Support Pension (DSP)
• The QRE Visa (Carer Payment): field indicates the customer has a Carer or Special Needs Relative Visa which may exempt them from the Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period (NARWP) for Carer Payment only - from information recorded on the RSLEG screen
• The QRE Visa (TPV): field indicates the customer has a temporary protection visa which qualifies them for certain payments

The RSREX screen is a detailed screen which displays more complex residence data.

The screen displays the following fields:

• Date of Residence Assessment: field can be changed so the information reflects the customer's data from the date entered
• TPV holder: field indicates the customer is a Temporary Protection Visa (TPV), Return Pending Visa (RPV) or a Removal Pending Bridging Visa (RPBV) holder. These customers' payments are not portable at all
• SPV holder: field indicates the customer is a Provisional Partner Visa (PPV) holder. These customers' payments are only portable in limited circumstances
• Current Visa subclass code: field displays the current visa subclass held by the customer. If the customer has two or more visas current at the one time this will show which visa is in effect
• Visa Start Date: field displays the later of the grant date of the customer's current visa or the start of the period of presence in Australia following the grant of the visa
• Start date of current Aust. Residence: field displays the date of last arrival into Australia as a resident
• Start date of SCV residing in Aust.: field displays the start date of the current period of Australian residence (includes non-protected Special Category visa (SCV) holders)
• Start date of current Aust. Presence: field displays the start date of the current period of Australian presence
• Projected end 104wks/208wks Aust. Presence (inc.SCV): field displays the date a customer will reach the end of 104 weeks or 208 weeks presence in Australia. Dates only display if they are in the future
• Australian Residence including SCV: field displays the total period of Australian residence while the person was a SCV holder. This does not include any period the person was not an SCV holder
• Australian physical presence: field displays the total period of Australian presence
• Aust. presence while Aust. Resident incl SCV: field displays the total period of presence in Australia during a period of Australian residence

The RSS screen is used to record information relating to residence savings provisions and some qualifying residence exemptions for the customer. Update access to this screen is restricted to specialist staff in Centrelink International Services (CIS).

1 July 2014 AWLR Savings Provisions:

• 300 Month denominator Ind: field indicates if a customer will continue to use the 300 month AWLR amount to calculate their proportional rate
• Use of partners AWLR Ind: field indicates if a customer may be paid according to their current or former partner's Working Life Residence (WLR) for portability rate assessment

Remaining fields:

• Port.Rate Extn: field is used to code an extension to the direct deduction rate for a period longer than 26 weeks, to an agreed extension end date. This affects customers paid under the Serbia Agreement only
• Aust Citizenship Verification Ind: field is used to indicate if a customer and/or child is an Australian citizen
• Family Member/Refugee Code: field is used to record that a customer and/or child entered Australia prior to 1 September 1994 as a refugee or is assessable under the family member of a refugee provision
• Long Term Country Code: field is used to indicate the country in which the customer is present long-term. It determines the base New Zealand rate calculation method that applies and will default based on Country of Location and Country of Presence. It generally only needs to be updated for temporary movements which are expected to be more than 12 months. Valid options are AU, NZ or '_'
• The Temporary Return to Aust Ind: field is used to indicate that a customer paid under the international agreement with Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Malta, North Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland or the United States of America has returned to Australia temporarily or to live. The indicator for the other Agreements customers must be updated to 'N' from their return date. Note: the temporary return indicator can affect the customer's entitlement and rate. Payment of Carer Pension under the Spanish or Portuguese Agreement will cancel if 'N' (to indicate a return to live) is coded in this field
• The DSP Port. 1 July 2004 status: field is used to record that a Disability Support Pension customer is saved under the pre 1 July 2004 portability rules. To be eligible for the savings provision, the customer must have been overseas on 1 July 2004, must not have returned to Australia to live since 1 July 2004 and was either:
• severely disabled on 30 June 2004 and remained so since that date, or
• granted before 12 November 1991 and saved under the 20 September 2000 portability rules
• Assessed Former Resident Ind: field indicates the customer may be affected by former resident provisions. If the customer is a former resident, the Expiry Date: field will show the date when the former resident period ends. These fields are protected and cannot be updated
• Former Resident Over-Ride Ind: field indicates a decision has been made to change the original assessment outcome displayed in the Assessed Former Resident Ind field. The Expiry Date field only needs to be updated if the Former Resident Over-Ride of the assessment is 'Y'
• Coding the CRES, ARD and RSS screens

The NZI screen displays information related to periods of residence in Australia, New Zealand and India.

By default the Country: field will be set to 'New Zealand' and display information that can be used to determine Australian and/or New Zealand entitlements under the New Zealand Agreement and to determine a customer's base proportional rate if they travel to NZ.

If the Country: field is changed to 'India' the information displayed can be used to determine Australian and/or Indian entitlements under the Indian Agreement.

For more information, see New Zealand Agreement information or India Agreement information.

The NZH screen contains historical information for customers who went to New Zealand (NZ) prior to the introduction of the 2002 agreement. Portability of Australian payments were limited under the previous agreement with NZ, however payment could continue indefinitely when:

• the customer claimed a NZ payment and the claim was rejected, or
• a female Australian Age Pension customer was under the NZ Age Pension age

This screen displays only if one of these special provisions applies to the customer.

The P1PAP screen is a display only screen. It displays information about the NARWP for PPL and DAP claimants.

Navigate to the screen by entering 'W' in the selection field on the PPL Claim Summary (P1CS) screen.

The information is derived from the Legal Residence Details (RSLEG) and Country of Residence (CRES) screens and also from absences from Australia recorded on the Customer Advised Travel Details (RSCD) and Immigration Advised Movements (RSIM) screens.

The screen displays the following fields:

• NARWP Exempt Code: displays the relevant 3 character code if the customer is exempt from the NARWP for PPL or DAP:
• CTZ - claimant is an Australia citizen
• DOB - PPL/DAP child was born, or entered care, before 1 July 2019
• 444 - claimant holds (or has held) a 444 NZ Special Category visa
• GFR - first qualifying visa granted prior to 1 January 2019
• RFG - claimant is a refugee/former refugee, or the family member of a refugee/former refugee
• TPV - claimant holds (or has held) a temporary protection type visa
• GFV - claimant holds (or has held) a visa subclass 115, 117, 835 or 837
• BEN - claimant exempt due to receiving an income support payment or FHA
• Visa Sub Class: the claimants qualifying visa subclass
• NARWP Duration (Weeks) and (Days): total NARWP to be served (104 weeks, or 728 days)
• NARWP Start Date: the first day of the claimants NARWP
• Projected End Date or NARWP End Date: field displays the projected end date of the NARWP if that date is in the future, or the actual date the customer has met the NARWP
• Periods of Australian Presence: summary of the periods that the customer has been physically present in Australia, while an Australian resident and/or the holder of a PPL or DAP qualifying visa

For more information, see Residence assessment for customers claiming Family Tax Benefit (FTB), Parental Leave Pay (PPL) and Dad and Partner Pay (DAP)