Required Periods of Residency

Last amended: 31 July 2013

Overview

For a person to claim a service pension or ISS, they must have resided in Australia for a certain period of time. Below are details of how long a person must reside in Australia.     

Australian Residents

Australian residents residing in Australia are not required to meet any minimum residency period, however they must be in Australia:

• on the day on which the claim is lodged.

Note: - Persons automatically granted ISS, do not actually lodge a formal claim and therefore have no requirement for a minimum period of residency.     

Person not eligible at the time of claim

For persons who do not meet the eligibility requirements for service pension at the time of lodging a claim, they must:

• remain in Australia until the earliest date from which the pension could be authorised to be paid (not applicable to ISS claimants).  If the person ceases to be an Australian resident before the earliest date from which the pension could be authorised to be paid, the person is not eligible for service pension.     
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  Section 3.5.1 Australian Residents

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Commonwealth Veterans, Allied Veterans and Allied Mariners

For service pension purposes only, Commonwealth veterans, Allied veterans and Allied mariners, in addition to the residency requirement for Australian residents, must also demonstrate that they have, at any time, been an Australian resident for a continuous period of at least ten years.     

Exemption to the ten year residency rules

Commonwealth veterans, Allied veterans and Allied mariners are exempted from the ten year continuous residency period in the following circumstances:

• if the veteran became permanently incapacitated for work while the veteran was an Australian resident, and
• if the veteran's permanent incapacity for work was not brought about with a view to obtaining a service pension or a social security pension, and
• if the veteran does not have an enforceable claim against any person for adequate compensation in respect of the permanent incapacity, or
• if the person is a refugee or former refugee as defined under sub-sections 5C(4) and 5C(5) of the VEA

Note: The Global Special Humanitarian Visa (class XB) has replaced the Refugee and Humanitarian (Migrant) (class BA) visa identified in Schedule 2A of the VEA. The Global Special Humanitarian Visa serves exactly the same purpose of providing protection for people who are unable to live safely in their country of origin, and is equivalent to the class BA visa. Holders of this visa therefore satisfy the definition of refugee under the VEA