Do I Need 9 Years in Australia Before 18 for Subclass 151 in 2026?
Short answer: nine years is real, but it is only the rule for applicants who are already 18 or older, and there is a second rule for everyone younger than that. According to the Australian Department of Home Affairs' Former Resident visa (subclass 151) page (as of the August 2026 official page), applicants who are 18 or older must show they spent at least nine years in Australia as a permanent resident before turning 18, while applicants younger than 18 must show they spent at least half of their life in Australia as a permanent resident. Which of those two tests you face changes almost everything about how the calculation is made — including whether the target is frozen or still moving. This article is general information about published criteria rather than advice on an individual case, and any particular calculation should be checked against the requirements as currently published.
Which of the two counting rules applies to you?
The split turns on your age on the day you apply, not on how long ago you lived in Australia.
| Age when you apply | What the long residence requirement asks for |
|---|---|
| 18 or older | At least nine years in Australia as a permanent resident before you turned 18 |
| Younger than 18 | At least half of your life spent in Australia as a permanent resident |
Both rows sit inside the same bundle of conditions. Whichever branch you use, you must also be younger than 45 at the time you apply, must never have been an Australian citizen, and must have kept close business, cultural or personal ties with Australia after you stopped being a permanent resident.
Does time in Australia after your 18th birthday count?
No. The nine-year figure is taken from a window that shuts on your 18th birthday, so anything accumulated later belongs to a different question.
Consider a hypothetical applicant who arrived in Australia at age nine as a permanent resident and left at 16: that is seven qualifying years, and it stays seven forever. Returning to Australia at 22 and living there for a decade does not add a single month to that pre-18 total. Those adult years are not wasted — they may speak to the separate requirement to have kept close ties with Australia — but they cannot close a nine-year gap.
What does "as a permanent resident" leave out?
This is where most self-assessments go wrong, because the test counts qualifying years, not simply years of presence in the country.
- Time spent in Australia while you held a temporary visa, including as a child on a parent's student or skilled visa, does not count.
- Time before your own permanent residence took effect does not count, even if you were included in a parent's application and travelled on the same grant paperwork.
- Periods during which you no longer held permanent residence sit outside the nine-year accumulation, since the status itself is part of what has to be shown.
The practical consequence is that a childhood spent almost entirely in Australia can still produce a low total if permanent residence was granted late or lapsed early within that window. Nothing in the published wording requires the nine years to be continuous; what matters is the total accumulated during that window and your ability to show it.
How is "half of your life" counted if you are still under 18?
Here the target is not fixed at all. The comparison is between time spent in Australia as a permanent resident and your entire life so far, which means the required amount grows with every birthday, whether or not you are living in Australia when it passes.
Take a hypothetical child born overseas, granted permanent residence at three, resident in Australia from three until twelve — nine qualifying years — and then living abroad. Applying at 14 requires seven years, and the nine already banked clears it easily. Applying at 17 and a half requires eight years and nine months, and the same nine years still clears it, but only just.
Now change one fact: suppose the family leaves when the child is ten, giving seven qualifying years. Applying at 14 requires exactly seven, so the test is met on the line. Applying at 16 requires eight, and the application fails by a year. For an applicant still under 18, delaying can cost eligibility, whereas for someone already over 18 the count has been frozen since their 18th birthday and the only age deadline left is 45.
What evidence actually carries the count?
The Department's page frames the requirement as one you "must be able to show," so the burden of reconstruction sits with you rather than with the decision-maker.
The Migration Regulations 1994 point to school records, household address or tenancy records, and financial records such as bank activity as evidence of time spent in Australia as a permanent resident before turning 18, alongside proof of the permanent residence itself. Home Affairs procedure guidance (PAM3) adds passport entry and exit records and warns against relying on a bare declaration; it also notes that where there is doubt about whether someone ever acquired Australian citizenship, that may be checked internally rather than simply accepted. Where the shortfall is objective — not enough qualifying years, or already 45 — PAM3 guidance indicates there is generally no later opportunity to cure it, because no amount of additional documents changes the arithmetic.
If you cannot meet it, is there another way in?
The long residence requirement is one of two possible bases for this visa. The other is the defence services requirement, which asks you to show that before 1981 you either completed at least three months of continuous Australian defence service, or were discharged before completing three months because you were medically unfit as a result of that service.
That route has no age requirement at all, which is why the Department states the under-45 limit only in connection with the long residence test. It is an alternative basis rather than a top-up: it does not extend or soften the nine-year count, and the standard health, character and other requirements still apply either way.
The rest of the checklist, whichever branch you use
The nine-year question tends to dominate early thinking, but the remaining conditions are equally binding.
To use the long residence basis you must be under 45 at the time you apply, have never been an Australian citizen, and have kept close business, cultural or personal ties with Australia since you ceased to be a permanent resident — regular contact with relatives or friends, frequent visits, owning property, or active business interests are the examples given. You and any family members applying with you must meet the health requirement, and you and any family members aged 16 or over must meet the character requirement. An Assurance of Support may be requested, any debt to the Australian Government must be repaid or covered by a formal repayment arrangement, and your immigration history matters: a cancelled visa or a previously refused application can affect eligibility for this visa.
On citizenship specifically, the Department's page says "never been an Australian citizen," and the Migration Regulations 1994 read that test as asking whether citizenship was ever acquired at all, rather than whether it is held today — so someone who acquired it and later lost it falls outside this stream and would need a different pathway. Published requirements and their interpretation change over time, so rely on the Department's current wording for any calculation that decides whether you apply.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the nine years have to be continuous?
No continuity requirement appears in the published wording: the test is whether at least nine years were spent in Australia as a permanent resident before turning 18, not whether those years formed one unbroken block. Absences for overseas travel do not automatically break the count. They do reduce the total you can claim, though, and unexplained gaps invite closer scrutiny of the years relied on.
Can time spent in Australia after turning 18 make up a shortfall?
No. The nine-year count is fixed by your 18th birthday, so later residence is tested under a different criterion — the requirement to have kept close business, cultural or personal ties with Australia since you stopped being a permanent resident. Adult years therefore help with ties, not with the residence total. A shortfall in the pre-18 count cannot be cured by returning later.
I lived in Australia on a student visa as a teenager — does that count?
Only years in which you actually held Australian permanent residence count toward the nine-year figure. Time on a temporary visa, or time before your own permanent residence took effect, sits outside the calculation even if you were physically present for the entire period. If permanent residence was granted partway through your childhood, the count begins from that grant rather than from your arrival date.
How is "half of your life" measured for someone still under 18?
It compares time spent in Australia as a permanent resident against total life lived so far, so the required amount rises as the applicant ages. Someone with nine qualifying years clears the test right up to 18, while someone with seven qualifying years clears it only until the age of 14 and falls short thereafter. For under-18 applicants, additional months spent overseas raise the bar, which is the opposite of the situation facing applicants already over 18.
Do family members included in my application need their own nine years?
The long residence requirement applies to you as the main applicant; under the Migration Regulations 1994, secondary applicants qualify as members of your family unit rather than by running a separate residence count. They do face their own health, character and documentation requirements, and a family member who fails can affect the entire application. Different family members' years cannot be added together to reach your nine.
What if I acquired Australian citizenship and later lost it?
The long residence requirement states you must never have been an Australian citizen, and the Migration Regulations 1994 read that as asking whether citizenship was ever acquired rather than whether it is held today. On that reading, someone who acquired citizenship and later lost it falls outside this stream and would need to consider another pathway.