Character Requirements for Australian Citizenship

The character requirement worries people more than almost any other part of a citizenship application, often out of proportion to their actual situation.

Some of that is because two quite different things get discussed as one. There is an assessment of your character, which involves judgement across a range of factors. And there is a list of circumstances in which Home Affairs simply cannot approve an application, regardless of what it thinks of you.

Knowing which one you are dealing with is the difference between a question of evidence and a question of timing.

What "good character" means

If you are 18 years or over, you must be of good character. The conferral requirements define good character as the enduring moral qualities of a person.

The assessment is forward-looking. Home Affairs considers whether you are likely to:

• uphold and obey the laws of Australia
• meet the other commitments made through the citizenship pledge

That framing matters. The question is not only what you have done but what it indicates about how you will conduct yourself as a citizen.

What the Department may consider

Home Affairs may take into account:

• any recorded criminal convictions
• obligations you may have to a court, in Australia or overseas
• your association with people of concern
• incidents of reported domestic violence
• whether you have been honest in your dealings with the Australian community, including whether you have provided false or misleading information in relation to a visa or citizenship application

Two features of that list are worth noticing.

It is broader than convictions. Reported incidents and court obligations appear alongside convictions, and an association with people of concern is a separate consideration again.

And the last item is about the application process itself. Which brings us to the single most practical point in this article.

Honesty is itself a character factor

Providing false or misleading information in relation to a visa or citizenship application is expressly listed among the things the Department may consider when assessing character.

This creates an asymmetry worth understanding clearly. A disclosed matter is assessed on its merits, and many matters are not fatal to an application. An undisclosed matter that later comes to light is both the original matter and a fresh character concern about honesty.

Non-disclosure rarely improves a position and frequently worsens one.

When an application cannot be approved

Separately from the character assessment, Home Affairs states that it must not approve a citizenship application in defined circumstances. These are not judgements — they are prohibitions.

Criminal proceedings and sentences. An application cannot be approved:

• while proceedings for an offence against an Australian law are pending, including proceedings by way of appeal or review
• when it is less than 2 years since you were released from prison after serving a prison sentence of 12 months or more — or 10 years if you are a repeat offender
• while you are subject to certain conditions set by an Australian court, such as being released on parole, on a good behaviour bond or on bail, where action may be taken against you for breach of those conditions
• while you are in prison or a psychiatric institution by order of a court at the time of decision

National security. An application cannot be approved if you are assessed as a risk to the security of Australia.

Former citizens. An application cannot be approved if you ceased to be an Australian citizen in the past 12 months.

The practical significance of most of these is timing rather than permanence. A pending proceeding resolves. A bond expires. A two-year period ends. For many people the correct response is to wait rather than to abandon the idea.

Police checks

The Australian check is done for you

If you are 16 years of age or over, Home Affairs will request a check on your behalf from the National Police Checking Service.

You do not need to obtain an Australian police check yourself, and you should not pay a third-party service to produce one for the application.

Overseas penal clearance certificates

An overseas penal clearance certificate is required if all of the following apply:

• you lived or travelled outside Australia since turning 18 years of age, and
• you held a permanent visa at that time, and
• the total time you spent outside Australia adds up to 12 months or more, and
• the time you spent in any one country was 90 days or more

It is also required whenever the Department requests one.

Note that these are cumulative conditions joined by "and", so a person who has travelled a great deal but never spent 90 days in a single country may not need one at all. Read the four together rather than reacting to the first.

Penal clearance certificates must be provided as originals, unlike most other supporting documents.

New Zealand is handled differently

Do not obtain a New Zealand penal clearance yourself. Home Affairs requests it directly from the New Zealand Ministry of Justice, and it does not accept New Zealand penal clearances provided by applicants. If you have not consented to that request in your application form, the Department will seek your consent before making it.

A separate and stricter rule applies to New Zealand citizens holding a Special Category visa. If you have spent any time outside Australia since turning 18, you need an overseas penal clearance certificate from any other country you visited or stayed in for 90 days or more — regardless of how long you have lived in Australia. For New Zealand citizens by grant, this includes the country of usual residence before migrating to New Zealand.

If you cannot obtain a certificate

Some applicants cannot obtain a penal clearance from a particular country. Home Affairs publishes guidance on what to do in that situation as part of its character requirements material, and country-specific instructions for obtaining clearances are available through its offices outside Australia.

The important thing is to address the gap in your application rather than leave it unexplained.

Character applies to resuming citizenship too

If you are applying to resume Australian citizenship rather than to acquire it by conferral, the same expectation appears: you must satisfy the Department of your identity, and if you are over 18, of your good character.

So character is not a hurdle specific to one pathway. It is a standing requirement across the ways of becoming an Australian citizen.

Before you apply

Three things are worth doing before you lodge.

Work out whether any absolute bar currently applies. If one does, the question is when it ends, not whether to apply at all.

Check the four overseas-clearance conditions against your own travel history, rather than assuming from the amount you have travelled.

Disclose fully. Honesty is an assessed factor in its own right, and a disclosed matter is in a materially better position than a discovered one.

Where your circumstances are genuinely uncertain — a historical conviction, an ongoing obligation to a court, a clearance you cannot obtain — this is an area where individual advice is worth more than any general guide.

Our overview of citizenship requirements and eligibility covers the other conditions, and common questions are answered in our FAQ.

Home Affairs publishes the character requirements and can change them, so check the current official guidance before relying on this summary.