Recording legal residence status 106-06020050

To qualify for most Australian social security payments a customer must be an Australian resident. To make a legal claim they must also:

• be in Australia at the time the claim is lodged, or
• meet an exception to the lodgement inside Australia rule

A person is an Australian resident if they reside in Australia and is either:

• an Australian citizen
• the holder of a permanent visa, or
• the holder of a protected Special Category visa (SCV)

Generally, a customer also needs to meet either a:

• Newly Arrived Resident’s Waiting Period (NARWP), or
• qualifying residence period

Alternatively, a customer may qualify for some payments if they:

• are the holder of a certain type of temporary visa or
• have a qualifying residence or waiting period exemption

A visa qualifier code may be required where visa subclass alone cannot determine qualification, for instance, holders of visa subclass 403. This information will be advised through the Immigration Datalink.

This procedure explains how to:

• verify and update a customer's legal residence status in Australia
• determine whether a qualifying residence exemption may apply, and
• record the residence information correctly

This procedure should be used:

• as part of the new claim process
• if a customer advises a change in their legal residence status or
• if a reassessment has caused a residence quarantine to be lifted

If a datalink is established, the Department of Home Affairs advises Services Australia of certain residence and travel information for:

• customers claiming or receiving Centrelink payments and concession cards, and
• for their linked partners, children and care receivers

The Immigration Datalink provides detail, from 1 September 1994 onwards, about:

• visas,
• movement information, and
• grants of Australian citizenship, where available, from 2001 onwards.

The Immigration Datalink does not advise what country a customer is residing in. This is a discretionary decision that staff must make weighing up the relevant factors based on the balance of information available. See Assessing if a customer is an Australian resident.

Customers may be required to provide documentation confirming their legal residence status prior to 1 September 1994.

Information from the Immigration Datalink takes precedence over any conflicting information provided by the customer.

Depending on the assessment, the system uses residence information on the Legal Residence (RSLEG), Country of Residence (CRES) and Immigration Advised Movements (RSIM) screens to assess whether the customer:

• meets the definition of an Australian resident
• is residing in Australia
• has a legal right to lodge a claim
• has served the NARWP or qualifying residence period, or
• has a qualifying residence exemption

Note: a non-protected Special Category visa (SCV) holder who has lived in Australia and/or Norfolk Island continuously for at least 10 years immediately before claiming may qualify for JobSeeker Payment (JSP) or Youth Allowance (YA) under the New Zealand 10 year residence exemption.

Immigration may end a person’s visa. The visa will either be:

• Ceased
• Cancelled, or
• Deleted

Note: for users who have access to the Department of Home Affairs' Immigration Movement Reconstruction (MR) Database, the Visa Status in MR will show as S=Ceased, C=Cancelled or Z=Deleted.

Centrelink receives and applies the end date of temporary and provisional visas (other than visa subclass 444), where the visa is ‘cancelled’, ‘ceased’ or ‘deleted’.

Centrelink receives and applies the end date of permanent visas where the visa is ‘cancelled’ or ‘deleted’.

Centrelink do not receive the end date of permanent or subclass 444 visas where the visa is ‘ceased’. A ceased permanent or 444 visa remains ‘open’ or ‘current’ for Centrelink purposes.

This is because:

• when those visas are ‘ceased’, the customer still holds the visa, and
• it is only the visa re-entry rights which have expired.

The customer continues to be residentially qualified for their Centrelink payment as re-entry rights do not impact Centrelink entitlement. Do not manually code a ceased end date for a permanent or 444 visa on the RSLEG/CHRSLEG screen.

When a customer’s permanent visa or visa subclass 444 is ‘cancelled’ or ‘deleted’ they no longer hold the visa. The end date of the visa is:

• received automatically via the Immigration Datalink, and
• recorded against that visa on the RSLEG screen.

In most instances, an end date on a visa will prompt the system to reassess the customer’s residence status (and therefore entitlement to payment) from that end date.

However, in some circumstances when a visa is ‘cancelled’ or ‘deleted’ the system continues to read previous ‘open’ visas on the RSLEG screen (ie. visas with no end date).

In these cases, the RSLEG screen must be manually coded with No Current Visa (‘NCV’) to ensure:

• the system doesn’t assess previous ‘open’ visas, and
• payment cancels

If the customer's Australian permanent residence visa has been reinstated (for example, a visa cancellation is overturned on appeal) the NCV coding will need to be deleted.

Record the new/reverted country where Australian citizenship is:

• Voluntarily renounced by the customer, or
• Revoked by immigration

Use the date Australian citizenship was relinquished or revoked as the start date of the new/reverted country.

The legal residence details for the customer are recorded on the Legal Residence Details (RSLEG) screen. The details are:

• country of citizenship
• visa details (including visa qualifier information where applicable), and
• New Zealand residence status.

The details on this screen relate to the customer's legal residence status and are not discretionary.

Note: If the customer has 2 current visas at the same time, both should be recorded and the system uses the more substantive visa for the assessment of their entitlement.

The Country of Residence (CRES) screen also needs to be coded to ensure the system correctly assesses qualification for payment.

The Service Officer must make a discretionary decision as to where the customer is residing. This is not advised via the datalink, however information received through the datalink can assist the Service Officer to make the decision, such as:

• legal residence status, and
• travel movements

See Assessing if a customer is an Australian resident.

Child residence screens are used to view and code information about dependent children who do not have their own record. The screens are accessed by selecting the child from the parent or care giver's record.

In most cases, the name of the screen is the same with the letters CH at the beginning. The Child Legal Residence Details screen is CHRSLEG. The exception is Immigration Enquiry (RSIMME). The child version of RSIMME is CHIMME.