Good character
The Australian Citizenship Act 2007 requires applicants for citizenship by conferral, descent, resumption and adoption under full and permanent Hague Convention arrangements, to be of good character if they are aged 18 and over at the time of the application. It is a policy requirement that applicants aged 16 years and over be of good character.
It is the responsibility of an applicant to show they are of good character.
Spent convictions
On the application forms, applicants are required to disclose all convictions, including spent convictions.
A ‘spent conviction’ is a conviction for a Commonwealth, territory, state or foreign offence that satisfies all of the following conditions:
- it is 10 years since the date of the conviction (or 5 years for juvenile offenders)
and - the individual was either not sentenced to imprisonment or was not sentenced to imprisonment for more than 30 months
and - the individual has not re-offended during the 10 year (5 years for juvenile offenders) waiting period
and - a statutory or prescribed exclusion does not apply.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship is exempted under Section 85ZZH (d) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Commonwealth) from the provisions of the spent convictions legislation in Australia and overseas for making decisions under the Australian Citizenship Act 2007.
All convictions are counted in assessing whether or not applicants satisfy the good character requirement of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007.
Overseas penal clearance certificates
If you are applying for conferral of Australian citizenship and you have spent 12 months or more overseas after grant of a permanent visa you need to provide overseas penal certificates for those other countries in which you have resided.
If you are applying for resumption, descent or full and permanent Hague adoption and you are applying offshore or have spent significant time outside Australia, you need to provide a penal certificate for those countries, outside Australia, in which you have resided for the previous 10 years.
Note: For all applicants, periods spent overseas since the applicant turned 16 years of age should be considered.
Residence overseas can be a continuous period or cumulative periods totalling 12 months or more. Penal certificates are only required where the period of stay in any one country exceeds 3 months or more.
Instructions on how to get penal clearance certificates from other countries is available.
See: Character and Penal Clearance Requirements
New Zealand citizens
Applicants for Australian citizenship need to show that they are of good character.
If you are applying for conferral of Australian citizenship and you have spent 12 months or more overseas after grant of a permanent visa you need to provide overseas penal certificates for those other countries in which you have resided.
New Zealand citizen applicants who do not hold a permanent residence visa are required to obtain overseas penal clearance certificates unless they arrived in Australia before the age of 16 years and have not left Australia since.
This applies to New Zealand citizen applicants aged 16 years or over regardless of how long the person has resided in Australia. The certificates are required because generally they have not been provided prior to the person becoming resident in Australia.
New Zealand citizens are required to complete a Form F1, which is available from the New Zealand Ministry of Justice website or any local district court in New Zealand. You will need to mail or fax the completed form to the address or fax number below. The table below provides contact details for the Ministry of Justice.
| Website | New Zealand Ministry of Justice website See: Obtaining a Copy of your Criminal Record |
| Telephone | +64 4 9188800 |
| Fax | +64 4 9188974 |
| The Privacy Unit Ministry of Justice National Office PO Box 2750 Wellington NEW ZEALAND |
You must check the box on the Form F1, requesting a Full Record of Convictions. You should attach the information you receive from the Ministry of Justice to your citizenship application when you lodge it.
The department may seek your consent to verify the information.