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PIC 4020 - false or misleading information

The single brightest line in Australian visa practice. If you (or anyone acting on your behalf) give the Department false or misleading information in a material particular, your visa is refused and you are barred from applying for any Australian visa for 3 years (and in some circumstances 10 years). The remedy is brutally simple: truthful disclosure, always. The migration agent's value is in the framing, never in the choice to omit.

Primary source

"(1) There is no evidence before the Minister that the applicant has given, or caused to be given, to the Minister, an officer, the Tribunal, a relevant assessing authority or a Medical Officer of the Commonwealth, information that is false or misleading in a material particular in relation to:

(a) the application for the visa; or
(b) a visa that the applicant held in the period of 12 months before the application was made." Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth) Schedule 4 - Public Interest Criterion 4020(1)
Read in conjunction with reg 1.03 (definition of "material particular") and PIC 4020(2)-(5) (extension to identity, exceptions, waiver provisions).

What the rule does

PIC 4020 is a Public Interest Criterion. Each visa subclass either incorporates PIC 4020 by reference (most do, including Subclass 820 and 801) or does not. If the subclass incorporates it and the criterion is breached, the visa application fails the "satisfies PIC 4020" gate and the case officer must refuse.

Three things make PIC 4020 the bright line rather than a technical criterion:

  1. Material particular is a low bar. A fact is "material" if it would or could affect the decision. Hiding a prior visa refusal in any country meets this test on a routine reading.
  2. The 3-year bar is automatic. Once PIC 4020 fires, the applicant cannot apply for any AU visa for 3 years from the refusal. Discretionary waiver exists (PIC 4020(4)) but is rare and demands compelling / compassionate circumstances.
  3. Detection is high-probability. Five Eyes (Australia / US / UK / Canada / NZ) shares visa-refusal data via the Migration 5 / Five Country Conference databases. US §214(b) refusals sit in the US CLASS system and are queryable from Australian visa workflows. Concealment betting against detection is a poor bet.

Adjacent criminal exposure: s 234

Section 234 of the Migration Act 1958 makes it a criminal offence to knowingly give false or misleading information in connection with the Act, with a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment. PIC 4020 is the administrative remedy; s 234 is the criminal one. Prosecutions on visa-application false-statement facts are uncommon, but the exposure exists.

My case

Disclosable matters that must appear in Form 47SP / Form 80:
  • US B-1 non-immigrant visitor visa refused under INA §214(b) at the London US Embassy on 13 April 2026. Refusal letter reference 214b-2025-01. Passport returned unmarked.
  • US ESTA application denied April 2026, filed pursuant to the 8 CFR §217.5(e)(5) duty to reapply after the B-1 refusal.
Modlean verdict: requiredDisclosure .adjudicator = formRequired
properlyHandled .adjudicator DisclosureLevel.concealment = false (both kernel-checked in ModleanSatAuPartnerVisa)
Why this matters A §214(b) refusal is not a criminal record and not a character finding. It is a finding that the applicant did not satisfy the consular officer of entitlement to non-immigrant status. The reasoning is structured around the §214(b) presumption that every applicant is an intending immigrant until they rebut it - which is the opposite of what a partner-visa applicant claims. Disclosure with proper framing is materially neutral for the partner-visa adjudication. Concealment is catastrophic.

Standard framing for the 47SP disclosure

The migration agent will draft the final wording. Substantive content:

On 13 April 2026, I was refused a non-immigrant B-1 visitor visa at the London US Embassy under INA §214(b) of the US Immigration and Nationality Act.

A §214(b) refusal is a finding that the applicant did not satisfy the consular officer of entitlement to non-immigrant status at the time of application. The reasoning behind a §214(b) refusal does not bear on the present application, which is for an immigrant-intent visa where my intent to reside permanently in Australia with my Australian-citizen partner is the explicit purpose.

Following the B-1 refusal, I complied with the regulatory obligation under 8 CFR §217.5(e)(5) by filing a new ESTA application with the prior-refusal disclosure. That ESTA application was also declined, consistent with how the US system treats post-refusal travel authorisations.

No criminal conviction or character-related finding has been made against me by any jurisdiction. Both events are documented in the attached evidence pack.

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