Public Interest Criteria 4020 (PIC 4020) and Partner Visa

Have you received a letter from Immigration advising a potential refusal on PIC 4020 grounds on your Partner Visa? 

Do not despair, our visa specialists can assist.

The rise and rise of PIC 4020 on partner visas

The Department is increasingly using Public Interest Criteria 4020 (PIC 4020) as a means to challenge visa applicants on the legitimacy of their partner visa applications. As you may be aware, PIC4020 allows the Department to refuse your visa if you have provided false or misleading information in relation to your application or a bogus document.  This means that the genuineness of your relationship will be assessed through the lens of the answers supplied in the application form and the supporting documentation supplied with the application. 

The common 'fraudulent activities' with partner visas

The Department scrutinizes the types of evidence and information supplied with the application and the common activities that lead to individuals being 'PIC'd' under this ground are:

1. Photoshopped documents and photographs - this usually occurs when photographs and documents are digitally altered to support claims of a relationship. This may include digitally adding a spouse or others into photographs to construct the relationship narrative (i.e. weddings or holidays together) or altering bank statements to support shared financial responsibility in a relationship;

2. The provision of fake documents - this may occur where counterfeit passports, marriage certificates or birth certificates for claimed children of the relationship are provided with the application. The provision of fake documentation may also extend to providing fake death certificates of a former spouse to qualify for the partner visa.

3. Providing false and misleading information and incorrect answers - information that is false or purposely untrue at the time of application, whether you knew it was false or not can still trigger this PIC. Importantly, omitting certain information can also fall afoul of PIC4020. Examples of false and misleading information may include statements in documents that a couple is living together when they are not or include answering within the visa application that one had never been married before when in fact a marriage had taken place or failing to notify the Department when a relationship breaks down (omission).

Consequences of Partner Visa refusal under PIC4020 ground

The consequences of refusal under PIC4020 extend beyond the immediate visa application and leads to the imposition of a 3 year bar (or 10 years in identity cases) from being granted any further visas, subject to applying for a waiver of the bar. A waiver may be considered if you are able to demonstrate “compassionate or compelling circumstances that affect the interests of an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen”.

Depending on the nature of the breach of PIC4020, seeking a waiver can be a high hurdle to pass.

How can Our Immigration Lawyers help

Each circumstance of a potential PIC4020 breach must be considered on its own merits and we can guide you on the most appropriate strategy to move forward.  This may include challenging whether the information is in fact false or misleading, addressing compelling and compassionate criteria to seek a waiver of the breach or withdrawing the application and re-lodging as part of a broader strategy. 

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Our Success Stories and Case Studies in Relation to PIC 4020

We have helped many couples successfully navigate the tight rope that is PIC4020. Some of our case studies are below:

Case Study 1: PIC4020(2A) With a 10 Year Bar With No Waiver Provision

• The client received a refusal of her visa application for PIC4020(2A) which is a 10 year bar with no waiver provision.

• We took the case and assisted our client to waive the 10 year bar in about 7 months. The usual processing time for this is usually about 2+ years.

• The result of waiving the Public Interest Criteria 4020 (2A) is the client AVOIDED charge of s.234 offence.

Case Study 2: PIC 4020(2A) 10 Year Bar Waived and Permanent Residency Granted

• The Primary Applicant received a s57 information to comment about his wife not meeting PIC 4020(2A).

• Years before they met, the wife came to Australia, she overstayed and re-entered using a new passport but a different name.

• The Primary Applicant had no knowledge and the wife had no excuse (she did what she did).

• One important thing was the “1 fail all fail” rule by the association of being a family member. Essentially what this meant was if one family member fails to meet the criteria, the whole application will fail.

• The wife had provided false and misleading information or bogus documents i.e. not meeting PIC 4020(2A).

• The result of PIC 4020(2A) is that the whole family will be barred for 10 years (with no waiver provision) and they were so close to getting the last batch of sc187 permanent residency.

• Our immigration lawyers WON the case and, today, the whole family are not only permanent residents but soon to be Australian citizens.

• The best thing about this win as the whole family AVOIDED charge of s.234 offence.

Case 3: PIC 4020(1) Waived and Partner Visa Granted

The client did not know his USA tourist visa had been revoked in the year before he applied for another Australian visitor visa. As a result, on his Australian visitor visa, he answered “NO” to the question in relation to whether he had ever been cancelled or refused a visa.

• Intel information was received from the Department of Home Affairs in relation to his US visa and this adverse information pointing towards a refusal of PIC 4020 was put forward to the client. This was the first time he knew of his USA visa being revoked.

• He made inquiries with the embassy and US immigration but received no clear answer as to why his visa had been revoked.

• His visitor visa was subsequently refused based on PIC 4020(1) of providing false or misleading information. He also had a pending partner visa application already at this time which we advised would also be affected by this PIC 4020 refusal.

• The client and his Australian partner had been separated for many years. The Australian partner is unable to get a visa to enter his home country, and he was not allowed to come to Australia. As such, they had been moving from country to country to be together.

In this case, we worked quickly to ensure they could reunite as soon as possible by putting in submissions through to the Tribunal and to the Department, and also relodged another Visitor visa application for them. Even though the client could not get answers from the US immigration on why his own visa was revoked, we conducted inquiries, investigations, and research which confirmed our suspicions that his US visa was revoked as a result of the blanket Trump policy targeting Mexicans.  

 A few months later, we received the grant for his temporary partner visa (First stage – Subclass 309) resulting from a successful waiver of PIC 4020 3 year exclusion period.