Permanent Residency Granted Despite Failure to disclose past criminal convictions

Background Story

The client failed to disclose her past criminal convictions in Ireland as they became ‘spent convictions’ in her home country. This failure to disclose occurred in several of her past visa applications.
When she was ready to apply for her permanent visa in Australia, she was preparing her updated police clearance from her home country and it was brought to her attention that although these were ‘spent convictions’, for the purposes of immigration, they would still need to be disclosed and would continue to show in her criminal record.

There is possibility of refusal under PIC 4020 due to the previous false and/or misleading information provided for the grant of her visa(s).
PIC 4020 refusal means 3-year exclusion period. Thus, there is extreme risks with her permanent visa application where her spent convictions would now need to be disclosed.

We assisted her in preparing legal submissions to address why her visa application should not be refused on the basis of PIC 4020. This included addressing why this information was not entirely material and that it was an innocent mistake and that the information was not ‘material particular’. On the basis that it is established she did provide false and/or misleading information then we also put in an argument to request the operation of this to be waived.
We also assisted in guiding her to prepare necessary supporting evidences to support her request for PIC 4020 to be waived.
Bear in mind that she also had criminal conviction(s) so we had to address this as well in our legal submissions for the grant of the visa.