Newly arrived resident's waiting period

If you've recently arrived as a resident in Australia, you may have to wait to get payments or concession cards.

We have information in different languages about Newly arrived resident's waiting period

Call our Multilingual Phone Service to speak with us in your language about your Centrelink payments and services.

Waiting period starts again

Due to coronavirus (COVID-19), we removed the newly arrived resident’s waiting period until 31 March 2021 for:

We stopped your payment on 1 April 2021 if both of these apply:

  • you hadn’t served the newly arrived resident’s waiting period
  • you didn’t have an exemption.

The time you’ve spent in Australia as a resident or eligible visa holder will count towards serving the waiting period. This includes the time you were getting a payment during the removal of the waiting period.

You can lodge a new claim and we’ll check if you‘re eligible for a payment if both of these apply:

Waiting period

The waiting period consists of time spent in Australia as an Australian resident. This means, if you travel overseas, the time you’re away from Australia won’t count towards the waiting period.

New residents may have to wait up to 4 years before they can:

  • get most of our payments
  • use most of our services.

A maximum 2 year waiting period applies if you’re the holder of either:

  • an Orphan Relative visa (subclass 117 or 837)
  • a Remaining Relative visa (subclass 115 and 835).

Holders of permanent residence visa or specified visa subclass granted after 1 January 2019

If you got your permanent residence visa or specified visa subclass on or after 1 January 2019, the following waiting periods apply.

4 year waiting period

There’s a 4 year waiting period for the following payments and concessions:

2 year waiting period

There’s a 2 year waiting period for the following payments:

You may be an Australian citizen and started living in Australia for the first time. In this case there’s a 2 year waiting period for Parenting Payment single and partnered.

1 year waiting period

There’s a 1 year waiting period for:

There’s no waiting period for Family Tax Benefit Part B.

Holders of visas granted before 1 January 2019 and Orphan Relative / Remaining Relative visas

If you got your permanent residence visa or specified visa subclass before 1 January 2019, there’s a 2 year waiting period. It applies to the following payments and concessions:

You won’t have to wait the newly arrived resident's waiting period for any of these:

New Zealand visa waiting periods

You may need to have a permanent residence visa before we can look at time you've spent in Australia. This will happen if you arrive on a New Zealand passport with a Special Category visa.

You don’t need a permanent residence visa to claim any of these:

Read more about New Zealand citizens claiming payments in Australia.

Access to some of our services and payments

If you have a waiting period, you can still use some of our services.

You can use the:

The Community Development Program may help you if you live in a remote area. It’s run by the National Indigenous Australians Agency.

You may have lived in a country that has a social security agreement with Australia. In this case you may be eligible for one of these payments:

Page last updated: 1 April 2021