如果申请人在国内曾经有过犯罪记录，如果罪行不超过1年，一般认为可以满足移民的品格要求。移民法s501(7) 定义了substantial criminal record。主要包括以下几点。
- the person has been sentenced to death
- the person has been sentenced to imprisonment for life
- the person has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more
- the person has been sentenced to 2 or more terms of imprisonment, where the total of those terms is 12 months or more
- the person has been acquitted of an offence on the grounds of unsoundness of mind or insanity, and as a result the person has been detained in a facility or institution;
- the person has been found by a court to not be fit to plead, in relation to an offence.
基本可以理解为如果申请人的被判的刑期加在一起不做12个月。那么申请人就有substantial criminal record (严重犯罪记录）
根据s501 (6) 如果申请人有substantial criminal record 或者有其他的特定违法行为，比如越狱，逃出拘留中心，或者是犯罪团伙的成员,或者会来澳洲从事犯罪活动。那么申请人就不能满足character test. (品格测试）
The concept of “risk” for the purposes of section 501(6)(d)(i) of the Act involves a comparatively low threshold. As noted by the respondent in its submissions, section 501(6)(d)(i) as previously drafted required there to be a “significant risk” of future criminal conduct. The word “significant” was deleted under the Migration Amendment (Character and General Visa Cancellation) Bill 2014 (Cth). The explanatory memorandum accompanying that Bill recorded as follows:
“The purpose of this amendment is to clarify the threshold of risk that a decision maker can accept before finding that the person does not pass the character test in relation to section 501(6)(d) of the Migration Act. The intention is that the level of risk required is more than a minimal or trivial likelihood of risk, without requiring the decision maker to prove that it amounts to a significant risk”.
Therefore, it is only required that the risk is more than a minimal or trivial likelihood.
如果申请人不能通过品格测试，需要Direction No 90 来判断是否可以给签证。
主要考虑是事项是 （1）protection of Australia community from criminal or other serious conduct. (保护澳洲人民的财产安全
（2）whether the conduct engaged in constituted family violence (是否有家庭暴力的情况）
（3）the best interests of minor children in Australia (在澳洲未成年人的利益）
（4）expectation of Australian community (澳洲社区的期望）
如果申请人是非暴力犯罪，比如说贪污，行贿受贿这种罪行，那么根据Dircection No 90的8.1.2来看 the nature of the harm to individuals or the Australian community should the non-citizen engaged in further criminal or other serious conduct. 那么在澳洲再犯的机会比较小。所以还是有可能申请到签证进入澳洲的。