Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period (NARWP) and Qualifying Residence Period 005-02020000

To qualify for most payments and concessions, a person must:

• Serve a NARWP
• Meet a minimum accumulated qualifying residence period, or
• Have an exemption from 1 or both of the qualifying residence periods

Before the payment or concession is payable, customers who have recently arrived to live in Australia and are claiming a payment or concession are required to:

• have been an Australian resident, and
• be physically in Australia for the required duration of the NARWP, either:
• in 1 continuous period or
• accumulated over a number of periods

Note: the period of residence and presence required for the NARWP does not need to have occurred immediately before claiming.

Temporary absences from Australia during the waiting period do not restart the NARWP but the days that a customer is overseas do not count towards meeting the NARWP requirements. For example, a customer claiming JobSeeker Payment may have a 2 or 4 year NARWP. If they leave Australia temporarily for 3 weeks the NARWP does not recommence, but the absence extends the NARWP end date by 3 weeks.

The requirement to have been in Australia for a period or periods totalling the required duration of the NARWP, allows for broken periods of residence in Australia to count if the person was an Australian resident in each period. For example, a customer who has returned to live in Australia after several years living overseas may have previously lived in Australia as an Australian resident. The period of former Australian residence would count towards any current NARWP requirements.

Note: the NARWP only needs to be served once for the applicable payment.

The NARWP rules changed on 1 January 2019. Whether a customer is subject to the NARWP and the length of the waiting period is subject to the following:

• the payment or concession they are claiming
• what visa subclass they hold (or have held)
• visa grant date

See the Resources page for a table of NARWP rules that apply to each payment/concession, based on the grant date of the customer’s first qualifying visa.

The NARWP generally starts on the day the person:

• first became an Australian resident, and
• was present in Australia

For Special Benefit, Family Tax Benefit, Parental Leave Pay, Dad and Partner Pay and Low Income Health Care Card (LIC) claimed by a person who holds a 309 or 820 partner provisional visa, the NARWP starts on the day the person:

• lodged an application for the relevant visa; and
• was present in Australia

Note: if a partner provisional (temporary) visa holder is subsequently granted a permanent partner visa, the period on the temporary visa does count towards the NARWP for SpB, FTB Part A, PLP and DAP. The NARWP for other payments (for example, JobSeeker Payment) starts from the date the permanent visa was granted and the person was present in Australia.

There are a number of exemptions from the NARWP. There are also payments and concession cards available to a person serving a NARWP.

Some exemptions from the NARWP are common across all affected payments and concessions. For example, when the person is an Australian citizen. However, some payments and concessions have specific exemptions. For example certain visa holders can have an exemption from the NARWP for Carer Payment (CP) or Carer Allowance (CA) but would have to serve the NARWP for any other payment or concession.

Some temporary visas provide a NARWP exemption for specific payments only. For example, visa subclass 060 and 070 holders can qualify for Low Income Health Care Card (LIC) and Special Benefit without serving a NARWP. They would need to be granted a permanent visa and meet relevant NARWP or qualifying residence period requirements for most other payments or concessions.

Customers whose affected payment was claimed within 2 years prior to 1 January 2017 where either of the following exemptions applies, are entitled to the 2017 NARWP Exemption grandfathered status:

• NARWP exemption as a family member of an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia, or
• Qualifying residence exemption as the holder of a visa subclass 100, 110, 801, 814, 832 or 833

This status is displayed on the Grandfathering Summary (GFS) screen. Updates, if required for reasons of 'Appeal', 'Policy Decision' or 'System error or omission', can be made by authorised staff in Centrelink International Services (CIS) on the Grandfathering Override (GFD) screen.

For more information about exemptions from the NARWP, see Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period and Qualifying Residence Exemptions.

A New Zealand citizen arriving in Australia using a New Zealand passport is generally issued a Special Category Visa (SCV). For more information on the residence status, see Australian Residence Rules for New Zealand citizens.

SCV holders have to serve a Newly Arrived Resident’s Waiting Period (NARWP), or have an exemption, for some payments and concessions.

A protected SCV holder does not have to serve a NARWP for:

• Carer Allowance (CDA)
• Dad and Partner Pay (DAP)
• Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
• Paid Parental Leave (PPL)
• Parenting Payment (PPP, PSS) but they do also need to meet a 104 week qualifying residence period

A protected SCV holder has a 2 year NARWP for:

• Austudy (AUS)
• Carer Payment (CP)
• Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC)
• Farm Household Allowance (FHA)
• Jobseeker Payment (JSP)
• Low Income Card (LIC)
• Mobility Allowance (MOB)
• Pensioner Education Supplement (PES)
• Special Benefit (SpB)
• Youth Allowance (YA)

A non-protected SCV holder (or a former SCV holder) does not have to serve a NARWP for:

• FTB
• PPL
• DAP

For all other payments and concessions, a former SCV holder must serve the NARWP that is applicable to their current visa type and grant date. Time holding an SCV can count towards the NARWP for LIC or CSHC.

Note: a non-protected SCV holder who qualifies for JSP or YA under the New Zealand 10 year residence exemption does not need to serve the NARWP.

A non-protected SCV holder has a 2 year NARWP for:

• CSHC
• LIC

Note: if an SCV holder is in receipt of a LIC or CSHC and is subsequently granted a permanent visa (after 1 January 2019) a 4 year NARWP is applied. Time holding the SCV can count towards these 4 years.

Protected SCV holders qualify as Australian residents and can access the full range of Centrelink payments if they:

• are currently living in Australia, and
• satisfy the relevant qualification criteria and waiting periods such as the NARWP

Past periods of presence as an Australian resident count towards the applicable waiting period.

Non-protected SCV holders do not qualify as an Australian resident. If a non-protected SCV holder is granted:

• Australian citizenship, they will have an exemption from the NARWP from the date the Australian citizenship is granted
• a permanent residence visa, any periods of presence as an Australian resident can count towards the NARWP for all payments and concessions. For CSHC and LIC, presence in Australia as an SCV holder can also count towards the NARWP

A qualifying residence period is a period of accumulated qualifying Australian residence required to qualify for some payments. The period is 2 or 10 years depending on the payment.

Payments subject to a qualifying residence period

• Age Pension
• Disability Support Pension (DSP)
• Parenting Payment (PP)

The length of the qualifying residence period is:

• 10 years for Age and DSP
• 2 years (104 weeks) for Parenting Payment

Note: Parenting Payment is subject to a 2 year qualifying residence period and the NARWP. This means the claimant needs to serve the 2 year qualifying period of residence concurrently with the 2 or 4 year NARWP for PPP and PPS.

Start date for qualifying residence

The qualifying residence period commences when the customer becomes:

• for AGE and DSP, an Australian resident (residing in Australia as an Australian citizen or a permanent residence visa holder or a protected SCV holder)
• for PP, an Australian resident who is present in Australia

Serving the qualifying residence period

The customer needs to have been an Australian resident for the prescribed period of time, depending on the payment being claimed. Temporary absences from Australia during the period of residence are treated differently, for:

• 2 year qualifying residence period, periods outside Australia will not count towards satisfying the requirements
• 10 year qualifying Australian residence period, short periods outside Australia can be included as long as the customer continued to be an Australian resident during the absence

Exemptions from the qualifying residence period

There are some exemptions from the qualifying residence requirements. Exemptions from the qualifying residence period are not necessarily the same as the exemptions from the NARWP. The qualifying residence exemptions are also different depending on the payment being claimed.

For more information about exemptions from the qualifying residence period, see Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period and Qualifying Residence Exemptions.

The Department of Home Affairs may reject a person’s application for a permanent residence visa, but the decision is set aside upon appeal. In these instances, for the purposes of calculating the NARWP, the day a person becomes the ‘holder of a permanent visa’ is the date the Department of Home Affairs originally decided not to grant the visa to the person.