Character Requirements for Partner Visa

For an Australian Partner visa, both the applicant and sponsor need to meet certain Character requirements. We have summarised these requirements below:

Sponsor

In an effort to reduce violence in the Australian community, the government introduced laws which allow the department to refuse a sponsorship applications for a Partner Visa if the sponsor has a ‘significant criminal record’ in relation to ‘relevant offences’.

Relevant offences include the following:

• Violence against a person, including (without limitation) murder, assault, sexual assault and the threat of violence
• The harassment, molestation, intimidation or stalking of a person
• The breach of an apprehended violence order
• Firearms or other dangerous weapons
• People smuggling
• Human trafficking
• Attempting to commit an offence involving any of the matters mentioned above or below
• Aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring these offences.

Significant criminal record is defined as:

If a person has been sentenced to:

• Death;
• Imprisonment for life;
• A term of imprisonment of 12 months or more, or
• 2 or more terms of imprisonment, where the total of those terms is 12 months or more.

If a person is sentenced to serve the 2 or more prison terms concurrently, where the total period is 12 months or more, it is a significant criminal record.

Conviction that has been quashed or pardoned would be disregarded.

Possible Exemptions

However, despite the above, a sponsorship application may be approved if it is reasonable to do so having regard to the following:

• The length of time since the sponsor completed the sentence for the relevant offence
• The best interests of any children of the sponsor/and or any children of the visa applicant
• The length of the relationship between the sponsor and the primary visa applicant