Partner Visa Granted Even Though the Sponsor has Substantial Criminal Record

Partner Visa Sponsor Background Story

There are two partner visa cases that we handled, where the sponsor has substantial criminal records. In the Migration Act, a person has substantial criminal record if he/she has been sentenced to a term (or multiple terms) of imprisonment where the total of those terms is 12 months or more. In sponsorship for partner visa cases, this is often referred to as a significant criminal record.

In our clients’ cases, below is the screenshot of the police checks certificate (personal information redacted for confidentiality reasons):

CLIENT A

CLIENT B

Our Assessment of the Cases

The Migration Regulations stated that the Minister must refuse to approve the Partner visa sponsorship if the sponsor has been convicted of relevant offence(s) and has a significant criminal record in relation to the relevant offence(s), unless further submissions and evidence are presented to the Minister to request for the sponsorship to be approved despite the offence(s).

Our Success Story

In the above cases, we assisted our clients in requesting the Minister to approve their sponsorship for the partner visa, even though they have the above offences. There are many factors that need to be considered and addressed in requesting this, and the Minister has a discretion whether to approve the sponsorship or not. The degree of this discretionary power makes it harder for the client as there is no certainty of the outcome.

Nevertheless, we were successful in presenting our case and argument to the Minister, and both Partner visa sponsorship for the above clients were approved. The partner visa applications were also approved as a result.