Immigration To Australia | 澳大利亚移民 - Australian Immigration and Visa

Source: http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/family/protection-of-children.htm

Stronger Measures for the Protection of Children

The Australian Government is strengthening policies around the sponsorship of minors for visas to enter Australia because it considers that the safety of children is paramount. The Government wants to ensure that children seeking to enter Australia under partner and child visas are protected from being sponsored by people with convictions for child sex offences or other serious offences indicating that they might pose a significant risk to a child in their care.

Current Requirement

Currently, sponsors of child visa applications and partner or prospective marriage applications which include a minor applicant are required to provide an Australian National Police Check (NPC) as part of the process of assessing the application, regardless of the length of time that they have spent in Australia.

Change affecting sponsors who have spent less than a year in total in Australia

From 9 November 2009, sponsors who have spent less than 12 months or more in total in Australia since turning sixteen years of age will not be required to provide an Australian NPC. Instead, these sponsors will be required to provide police certificates from each country in which they have spent a total of 12 months or more in the last 10 years since turning sixteen years of age.

Sponsors who have already been asked to provide an Australian NPC or who have provided an Australian NPC by 9 November are not affected by this change.

The results of the Australian NPC or foreign police certificates will be used by the department to assess whether or not the visa application satisfies public interest criteria relating to the best interests of children.
See: Stronger Measures for the Protection of Children – Questions and Answers (81KB PDF file)