I am an Australian citizen living in New Zealand. My partner is a Kiwi and we have 4 children. He has a criminal record and was sentenced to 12 months in prison 9 years ago. Is it the "time of imprisonment" or "the sentencing period" that could possibly prevent him from entering Australia. Will it help his chances seeing I'm Australian? Very confused by it all...thank you :)

Hi, just dont tell them and they will never know, Australia customs don't have access to NZ citizen criminal record so on the passenger card put NO criminal record and you will have no problems living there, If you tick yes they will make u consent to a disclosure of any criminal record and you will get refused entry as he has been sentenced to 12 months jail.

it is the sentence (which indicates the seriousness of the crime) regardless of how long he actually did. a 12 months or less sentence is the test, so he could be fine as it was so long ago, but it does depend if the crime was violent or invlolved drugs etc. or you could not declare it which most people do & get away with, as long as you look respectable

You will get stopped Australian immigration has access to your records. I was stopped in Sydney and sent back to NZ on the next flight. Don't listen to "robbo", he's an idiot. Watch border security on TVOne - they always catch out Kiwis who tick "no" on the convictions part and then get caught out, but it depends on your character and convictions. They will assess you to determine if you are a risk to the Australian community. Trust me, I got into Sydney in 2007 but came back to NZ, then tried to get back in in 2008 but got declined and deported. Border security was there and wanted to film me. I told em to get $&@? Lol...