Bridging Visa A

Bridging Visas are one the most confusing areas of Australian visas system. Not many people know what Bridging Visas are and what is the purpose of each one of them?

One of the most common Bridging Visas is Bridging Visa A. Bridging Visa A is the Bridging Visa that is automatically granted at NO COST once the visa applicant has applied for the substantive visa, onshore.

Offshore visa applicants won't be able to obtain a Bridging Visa A.

The purpose of Bridging Visa A is for the visa applicant to legally stay in Australia and wait for his/her substantive visa to be finalized. Therefore the Bridging Visa A does not really have an expiry date. It will cease once the substantive visa has been finalized, either successfully grant or refuse.

There are things that you need to know about Bridging Visa A:

• Bridging Visa A does not have the travel facilities. If a Bridging Visa A holder wants to travel out of Australia, then s/he needs to apply for Bridging Visa B. Bridging Visa B will allow the visa holder to travel out of Australia, usually up to 3 months.
• Working right will be exactly the same as the previous substantive visa. Therefore, it is important that the visa holder knows his/her work rights or work conditions of the substantive visa so that the work rights won't be breached while holding Bridging Visa A.
• Student visa holders can still work up to 40 hours/2 weeks.
• Tourist visa holder will have no work right.
• Bridging Visa A will not come into effect until the last substantive visa expires. Therefore, it is important that the visa holder follows the visa conditions of the previous substantive visa strictly. For example, student visa holders need to attend school until either their previous substantive visa expires or the new substantive visa has finalized.

That is the basic knowledge that a lot of us should know about Bridging Visa A. So that we won't breach any of the visa conditions.

Becoming an Australain citizen

Personally, I think it is a privilege to be an Australian citizen, either by birth or by choice. There are several ways of becoming Australian citizen. One of the most common one among migrants is by "conferral".

You are eligible for Australian citizenship by conferral if you:

•  Legally live here in Australia for at least 4 years (on whatever visa)
• Have been a Permanent Residence and live in Australia at least 1 year after your permanent residency (on whatever Permanent Residence visa subclass)

It is important that you know how to calculate the residency period in Australia. Everytime you travel out of Australia, you cannot count those days toward your residency. 

If your child is under 16, your child can be a secondary applicant at no cost. There are greater benefits of become Australian citizen, especially for your child education.

Apart from any social benefits from Centrelink (I won't elaborate here), your child will have access to a FREE public education until year 12. Your child will have access to HECS and VETHELP if she/he decided to continue his/her education at higher level.

Many parents have decided to become Australian citizens, simply for their child's education.

In order to become an Australian citizen by conferral, the applicant needs to sit for the Australian citizenship test. It is 20 multiple choice questions. You need to get at least 15 of them correctly. You have 45 minutes to sit for the test. It is a computerized test, therefore, you will get your results immediately. You are allowed to take the test several times in one day, provided that the officer at the centre is available. It is quite obvious that the officer is quite flexible with the test.

As lots of countries now allow the dual citizenship. I personally encourage everyone to take up Australian citizenship. There are lots of benefits that you can access if you are an Australian citizen. Another great things of being an Australian citizen is that, there are lots of countries in the CommonWealth that you could travel to without having a visa or easily apply for "a visa on arrival".

As an Australian citizen, you could also live permanently in New Zealand as it is part of agreement between our 2 governments.

As you can see there are great benefits to call Australia home and become part of the country; be Australian citizen. I strongly suggest everyone look into this option seriously as the process of becoming Australian citizen is quite easy and straightforward.