This component:

• develops and administers visa arrangements that facilitate the re-entry of Australian permanent residents and ensures that only those people with a genuine commitment to residing in Australia, or who are contributing to Australia's wellbeing, retain the right to return and remain permanently in Australia
• provides documentation to facilitate the entry to Australia of Australian citizen dual nationals who have compelling reasons preventing them from travelling on an Australian passport
• provides Certificates of Evidence of Resident Status to Australian permanent residents who require evidence of their status
• develops and administers visa arrangements to facilitate the entry of former Australian permanent residents who spent nine out of their first 18 years in Australia and who have maintained close ties to Australia, and those who served in Australia's armed forces before 19 January 1981.

Description

Under this output, the department develops and administers visa arrangements and other documentation to facilitate the re-entry of current and former Australian permanent residents in line with the above objectives. It also provides Certificates of Evidence of Resident Status to Australian permanent residents who require evidence of their status.

Performance

In 2008–09, 81 014 visas were granted and certificates issued, as shown in Table 29.

During 2008–09, the department granted:

• 66 587 Resident Return visas (a total of 68 855 applications were received, with 853 refused)
• 166 Former Resident (subclass 151) visas (a total of 155 applications were received, with 12 refused)
• 982 Australian Declaratory visas (a total of 1021 applications were received, with two refused)
• 13 279 Certificates of Evidence of Resident Status (a total of 13 374 applications were received, with nil refusals).

1. Measure introduced in 2008–09.