Residence requirements for ABSTUDY 010-02030020

To be eligible for ABSTUDY assistance, a student or Australian Apprentice must meet the general ABSTUDY eligibility criteria, which includes:

• being an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person who is an Australian citizen
• enrolled in an approved course of study or Australian Apprenticeship
• normally lives in Australia, and
• is not receiving or will not receive any other Government assistance to study

The main ways of becoming an Australian citizen are by birth, by grant (formerly called naturalisation), by descent, or by being adopted by an Australian citizen.

The residence requirements for ABSTUDY apply to the student or Australian Apprentice only. They do not apply to the parents/guardians or to a customer's partner.

New students and Australian Apprentices may be required to provide proof of their Australian citizenship to Services Australia if they have not previously done so. Acceptable proof is:

• original birth certificate or extract (generally for Australian born customers only)
• passport
• verification of Australian citizenship from Australia's immigration department, or
• Australian citizenship certificate or an official copy

The Newly Arrived Resident's Waiting Period (NARWP) does not apply to ABSTUDY customers.

The new claim process will attempt a datalink with the Department of Home Affairs. If successful, the datalink will automatically record a customer's visa and movement information from 1 September 1994, and grants of Australian citizenship where available.

Where the datalink is unsuccessful, residence information will need to be manually recorded. If the Department of Home Affairs has provided the information, it will take precedence over any conflicting information provided by the customer. Once the Department of Home Affairs record is matched with Centrelink, ongoing updates to movement information will be automatically recorded on the customer's record.

The decision about whether a customer is or was residing in Australia, needs to be manually assessed and recorded by the Service Officer. This information is not provided by the datalink.

ABSTUDY claimants are not required to be payable immediately before the day of departure in order for ABSTUDY to be paid for the duration of their overseas study as part of their approved Australian course. The procedure, ABSTUDY student or Australian Apprentice going overseas has further details.