Perth Wildcats express joy for five-time NBL MVP Bryce Cotton after he is granted Australian citizenship

Perth Wildcats have congratulated former superstar Bryce Cotton on finally being granted Australian citizenship, saying they can’t wait to see him wearing the green and gold. Cotton’s citizenship ordeal which has been going for about five years ended on Friday when he announced the government had accepted his application. He is expected to become naturalised this month. The news was huge for Australian basketball because it now means the five-time NBL MVP can represent the Boomers. The Wildcats said that was a huge development for the sport. “We congratulate Bryce on the news of him becoming an Australian citizen and we hope to be supporting him wearing the green and gold shortly,” the club told The West Australian. The Wildcats had fought hard to get a four-year ban from applying for citizenship overturned. Cotton thought he was fast-tracking his application when he attended a meeting at the Home Affairs Office in Melbourne in February 2021 where he was granted a Distinguished Talent Visa. But because he needed to cancel his normal visa before his Distinguished Talent Visa could be processed, Cotton was deemed to be in Australia without any visa for 20 minutes and that resulted in the four-year ban. The Wildcats fought with both sides of government to get the decision overturned, and Cotton also unsuccessfully took the case to court in 2023. He was then shocked to learn his ban had been extended by three months because Cotton had spent more than 90 days overseas in the 12 months before he was due to become eligible in February this year. But his lawyer Ricky Bustos broke significant ground in recent months, with Cotton revealing he took a different approach to the case. It is likely Bustos argued Cotton’s trips to Japan and New Zealand while playing for the Wildcats were examples of him using his Distinguished Talent Visa for work. He also moved to Puerto Rico during the off-season to play for Mets de Guaynabo and that is another example of his being overseas to further his sporting career. Rules which were implemented during September 2021 allowed athletes to remain eligible for Australian citizenship if they could prove they were overseas training or competing in a sport which is included in the Olympics, Commonwealth Games or are representing Australia in tennis or cricket. Under those laws, Cotton only needed to be in Australia for 480 days during the four years before applying, if he spent at least 120 days in Australia in the past 12 months. That option wasn’t available to the Wildcats until he had completed his four-year ban. “Whilst Bryce was playing for the Perth Wildcats, we exhausted all avenues over multiple years in the club’s attempts to assist him in obtaining Australia citizenship. Disappointingly, it didn’t happen whilst he was a player for the club,” the Wildcats said. Cotton will play for Adelaide 36ers this season and becoming an Australian means only a small percentage of his lucrative contract will now be included in the club’s salary cap. That is a massive boost for the 36ers and an option that wasn’t available while he was listed as an import.