If you or your partner are permanent residents in Australia and your children are born overseas, it can take up to 32 months for them to be able to enter and start living permanently in the country with you.
In that case, the process includes having to apply for a Child Visa 101 - the approval of which requires certain criteria being met.
“Only children born to Australian citizens and permanent residents in Australia acquire Australian Citizenship by birth,” says migration lawyer Judy Hamawi.
“On the other hand, children born to Australian citizens overseas acquire Australian Citizenship by descent once the Australian parent registers their birth with the Australian embassy in the country they are born in.”
Source: Moment RF
Children born in Australia automatically acquire Australian citizenship if at least one parent is an Australian citizen or a permanent resident at the time of the child's birth.
Children born overseas to permanent residents
The situation radically changes if the children of one or two non-Australian permanent residents are born outside Australia. In that case, the children do not automatically acquire Australian citizenship, nor are they eligible for citizenship by descent.
To enter and live in Australia, children born outside of Australia to permanent resident parents will need to apply for and be granted a permanent visa.
According to the Department of Home Affairs, most of the children born outside Australia to permanent resident parents will need to apply for the Child (subclass 101) visa, which currently has a processing time of 20 months for 75 per cent of the applications, and up to 32 months for 90 per cent of the requests.
All those who apply for a Child (subclass 101) visa, including applicants who are the children of permanent residents, must meet the eligibility requirements and pay the associated charges for the relevant visa.
New parents watching babies in hospital nursery Source: Brand X
The visa application charge for a Child visa is $2,665 and may have additional expenses of health assessments and other necessary documentation.
Ms Hamawi stressed the need for non-Australian parents to waive their right to custody of the child in order for the Australian parent to sponsor the child via the Child Visa (101).
Children born in Australia to permanent resident parents
The situation is significantly different if the children are born in Australia to permanent residents.
In that case, children born in Australia to parents at least one of whom is a permanent resident in the country, automatically acquire Australian citizenship. However, the nationality of the child is not mentioned on the birth certificate, which only indicates the place of birth.
And if in such cases, parents were to apply for a passport for their Australia-born children, they would have to apply for another document in order to be able to obtain the travel document for their new-born.
Giulia Baldini is an Italian citizen and a permanent resident in Australia. She has been living in Sydney with her Italian husband – also a permanent resident - for the past ten years.
Source: AAP
In August 2017 the couple had their first child, a girl born in Sydney. Ms Baldini said obtaining an Australian passport for her daughter required another crucial document.
“Together with our Italian passports, our permanent residency documents and her birth certificate, we had to request and obtain a separate citizenship certificate for our daughter," she said.
Children born in Australia to parents on temporary visas
When it comes to children born in Australia to parents on temporary visas, Ms Hamawi explains that children are granted visas with conditions similar to those on their parents’ visa.
“Children born to temporary visa holders in Australia are granted temporary visas. But it is important to note that children born in Australia who hold temporary visas and live in Australia for 10 consecutive years, are eligible to apply and be granted Australian citizenship”.
According to the Australian citizenship law, children born in Australia on or after 20 August 1986, who did not acquire Australian citizenship at birth, become eligible for Australian citizenship regardless of their visa, if they have been ordinarily resident in Australia for 10 years since their birth. In such cases, the child becomes an Australian citizen on turning ten and their parents' visa status does not affect their eligibility for Australian citizenship.
