Referred to VACCU? What the character unit checks, how long it takes, and what to send
Your health check cleared, your police certificate arrived, and then the file stopped. When you asked, the Department said the application had been referred for character assessment. That means the Visa Applicant Character Consideration Unit, known as VACCU, now holds your file. This page explains what the unit is, what sends a file there, the character test limb by limb, what the Department has said about its caseload, and what to send before anyone asks you for it.
A VACCU referral is an assessment, not a refusal. The unit checks your application against the character test in section 501 of the Migration Act and against Ministerial Direction 110, then reports to the delegate who decides your visa. It takes files that raise a concern: a declared conviction, an entry on a police certificate, a previous refusal or removal, an association or security matter. It can assess on what is already in the file, so the file should already contain the court record, your own account, evidence of rehabilitation and evidence of your ties.
If you are refused on character grounds while in Australia, you have 9 days to apply to the tribunal. Plan for that before the decision, not after.
Fewer than 4,000 files, a few hundred referrals a month, and a caseload dominated by family violence
VACCU is a specialist unit within the Department of Home Affairs. Ordinary visa processing happens in the visa program areas. A case officer refers a file to the unit when the character questions, the police certificates or other information raise a concern that needs a specialist assessment. The unit works with police, intelligence agencies and international bodies, assesses the file against section 501 and Direction 110, and records an assessment. The delegate who decides the visa acts on it.
In 2023 the Department lowered the referral threshold so that low level, non violent matters stayed in ordinary processing, and in 2025 it reported that about 600 lower risk files had been returned to standard processing and that the unit was finalising about 30 per cent more assessments than in each of the two previous years. Its 2023-24 figures, as reported, showed about a quarter of files finalised within three months, half within a year, three quarters within nearly three years, and the longest running for several years.
The unit is smaller and faster than it was, and it is aimed at serious conduct. A minor, declared, well documented matter is the kind of file the Department has been pushing back into ordinary processing. A family violence matter, an undeclared record or a sentence over the line is the kind it keeps, and those files take longest.
Is your application likely to be referred, and what should you prepare?
Two questions. The answer tells you how likely a referral is, why, and what to do at the stage you are at.
Section 501(6), limb by limb
A person fails the character test if any one of these applies. Which one applies decides whether you are arguing that you pass, or asking the delegate not to refuse.
Section 501(6)(a) and 501(7): substantial criminal record
Fails the testA sentence of death or life imprisonment.
A term of imprisonment of 12 months or more.
Two or more terms that add up to 12 months or more. Concurrent terms are each counted in full.
Acquitted of an offence on the ground of unsoundness of mind or insanity and detained as a result, or found unfit to plead and detained.
It is the sentence imposed, not the time served. A wholly suspended 12 month sentence is a substantial criminal record.
It counts convictions anywhere in the world, and spent convictions still count for this purpose.
Once you fail the test, the question is no longer whether you pass. It is whether the delegate exercises the discretion to refuse under Direction 110.
Our read. This is the bright line. Get the sentencing record for every matter before anyone guesses which side of 12 months you are on.
Section 501(6)(c): past and present criminal or general conduct
DiscretionaryThe Minister need only reasonably suspect, having regard to the person’s past and present criminal conduct, or general conduct, that the person is not of good character.
Criminal conduct covers convictions below the 12 month line: fines, bonds, community orders, short terms.
General conduct covers matters that never reached a court: visa breaches, dishonesty with government, workplace or family conduct.
This is where most referred applicants sit, and where the assessment is most open to evidence.
Context, time elapsed, what you did afterwards and how you live now all go to this limb.
One old driving matter rarely fails it. A pattern of the same conduct, or conduct while holding a visa, can.
Our read. Treat this limb as an argument you can win, and give the unit the material to win it: the court record, your account and the years since.
Section 501(6)(b): association with criminal conduct
DiscretionaryThe person has or has had an association with someone, or a group or organisation, that the Minister reasonably suspects has been or is involved in criminal conduct.
Membership is not required. Association is enough.
Family, workplace and social links can be caught if the other person or group is suspected of criminal conduct.
The Department may hold information about the association that it does not disclose to you in full.
Our read. Do not answer an association concern with a denial. Answer it with evidence of what your actual relationships, employment and movements were.
Section 501(6)(d): risk to the Australian community
DiscretionaryWhether, if the person were in Australia, there is a risk that they would engage in criminal conduct, harass, molest, intimidate or stalk another person, vilify a segment of the community, incite discord, or represent a danger to the community.
The risk is assessed forward, on the whole picture.
Evidence of rehabilitation, stable work, supervision, treatment and time offence-free all speak to this limb.
Family violence conduct is weighed heavily here and under Direction 110, and the Department has said about 30 per cent of the unit’s caseload involves it.
Our read. Risk is answered with dated evidence: program completion, treatment letters, employer statements, and the years since.
Sections 501(6)(e) to (h), (aa), (ab) and (ba)
Fails the testConvicted of, or found guilty of, a sexually based offence involving a child, regardless of sentence.
Subject to an adverse security assessment by ASIO, or an Interpol notice from which it is reasonable to infer a risk to the community.
Charged with or indicted for genocide, a crime against humanity, a war crime, torture or slavery, or reasonably suspected of involvement in people smuggling or trafficking.
Convicted of an offence committed in immigration detention, or of escaping from it.
These limbs fail the test outright. There is no argument about degree.
The application then depends entirely on the discretion under Direction 110, and these files sit longest in the unit.
Our read. If any of these applies, the character submission is the application. Nothing else in the file matters until it is done.
What the delegate must weigh, in the order the Direction sets
Primary considerations
- Protection of the Australian community from criminal or other serious conduct: the nature and seriousness of the conduct and the risk of it recurring.
- Whether the conduct constituted family violence. Added as a primary consideration in its own right when Direction 110 replaced Direction 99 on 21 June 2024.
- The strength, nature and duration of your ties to Australia. Long residence counts, but the Direction gives it less protective weight than its predecessor did.
- The best interests of minor children in Australia affected by the decision.
- Expectations of the Australian community. The Direction states them; they are not measured by opinion poll.
Other considerations
- Legal consequences of the decision, including Australia’s non-refoulement obligations.
- Extent of impediments if removed: age, health, language, and the support available in the country of return.
- Impact on victims of the conduct.
- Impact on Australian business interests, which is where an employer’s letter about your role and the consequence of losing you is evidence the delegate must consider.
A submission that addresses these in the Direction’s own order, with evidence under each heading, is read as the delegate must write the decision. One that tells your story in your own order makes the delegate do the sorting, and the sorting is where things get lost.
From lodgement to decision, and the 9 days after it
- Lodgement
Character questions and police certificates
Every visa application asks character questions. Police certificates are needed for every country you have lived in for 12 months or more in the last 10 years since turning 16, and for Australia if you have spent 12 months here. This is the material the case officer reads first.
- Referral
The case officer sends the file to VACCU
If the answers or the certificates raise a concern, the case officer refers the application to the unit. You are not always told. The Department reported 160 to 260 referrals a month in 2025 after tightening its thresholds so that lower risk files stay in ordinary processing.
- The quiet period
The unit collects and reads
The unit obtains court records, checks with other agencies and reads the file against the test and Direction 110. It can assess on what is in the file without writing to you. Most people first learn of a referral when they ask why nothing has happened.
- Requests
A section 56 request or a natural justice letter
The unit may ask for court documents, further certificates or a statutory declaration. If the delegate is minded to refuse, you receive a natural justice letter, sometimes called a notice of intention to consider refusal, with a fixed deadline, commonly 28 days. It sets out the adverse information and the Direction 110 considerations you must address.
- Assessment
VACCU reports, the delegate decides
The unit records an assessment. The delegate who decides the visa then weighs it with every other criterion, so an expired police certificate or an out of date document elsewhere in the file can still be the reason for refusal.
- After a refusal
9 days, $3,727, and section 501E
A delegate’s refusal under section 501 to a person in Australia is reviewable at the Administrative Review Tribunal, but the application must be lodged within 9 days of notification. The fee is $3,727, halved in financial hardship. Section 501E stops most other visa applications while you stay. Offshore refusals have narrower review rights that turn on your sponsor.
Seven things to put in the file before the unit asks
Get the court record, not your memory of it
Certified outcomes from every court, in every country, plus sentencing remarks where published. The unit compares your account to the record line by line, and the 12 month line is decided by the sentence imposed.
Correct the application if any answer was wrong
Form 1023 with a statutory declaration explaining the omission. Public interest criterion 4020 can refuse a visa for a false answer alone and imposes a three year bar, so this comes before anything about character.
Write your own account
What happened, what you did about it, and what has changed. Facts and dates. No minimising, no blaming the victim, no explaining why the court was wrong.
Prove rehabilitation with dates
Program completions, treatment and counselling letters, parole or corrections reports, employment records, community involvement, and the length of time since the last offence.
Prove your ties and what removal would do
Partner and children in Australia with birth certificates and school letters, length of residence, employment, business, and a statement from each person about the effect on them. This is where the best interests of children and the impact on business interests are evidenced.
Lodge a submission in the Direction 110 order
One document that takes each primary consideration and each other consideration in turn and points to the evidence for it. Upload it through ImmiAccount before the unit asks. If a natural justice letter comes later, you update it instead of starting under a 28 day clock.
Keep the rest of the file alive
Police certificates expire after 12 months, health examinations lapse, passports and relationship evidence age. A character file can run long enough for all of them to expire, and a refusal on an expired document is still a refusal.
Who should be careful
- Anyone whose conduct involved family violence. Direction 110 makes it a primary consideration in its own right and the unit prioritises these files.
- Anyone who answered ‘no’ to a character question that should have been ‘yes’, including for spent, juvenile or overseas matters.
- Anyone with a charge pending. The Department will usually wait for the outcome, and the sentence decides the limb.
- Onshore applicants whose bridging visa carries conditions. A breach while the character file waits becomes general conduct evidence.
- Partner visa applicants whose sponsor has a record. The sponsor’s police check is assessed separately, and a sponsor conviction for certain offences can bar sponsorship.
- Anyone refused: 9 days to the tribunal if the decision was made onshore by a delegate.
The character questions on a partner application, the sponsor’s own police check and the way a conviction is disclosed have their own traps. We have written a separate guide to partner visas with a criminal record, and our refusals and review page covers the tribunal step if it comes to that.
Four people, four different files
The chef in Footscray with a 2021 assault conviction
He received a six month suspended sentence and declared it on his 482 application. He is below the 12 month line, so the case is his past and present conduct. Certified court outcome, his own account, the completed anger management program, four clean years and a letter from the restaurant that has employed him since go in with the application. The outcome turns on that material, not on the conviction alone.
The 309 applicant in Manila with two drink driving matters and an undeclared fine
She declared the two driving convictions but not a 2017 fine for a public order offence, which the Philippine NBI clearance shows. The character issue is small. The PIC 4020 issue is not. Form 1023 goes in this week with a statutory declaration, then the character material. Waiting for the Department to raise it converts an omission into an adverse finding.
The 482 nominee from Johannesburg sentenced to 18 months, six served
The sentence imposed is 18 months, so he fails the character test and the delegate decides under Direction 110 whether to refuse. The submission has to meet community protection head on: the offence, the nine years since, rehabilitation, and the impact on the Australian business that needs him, evidenced by the employer’s own letter. This is the slowest category in the unit, and everything else in the file will need renewing while it waits.
The student in Clayton with a charge listed for hearing in November
No conviction yet, so the test cannot be applied until the court decides. She notifies the Department of the charge in writing, her migration lawyer briefs her criminal lawyer on where the 12 month line sits, and the immigration consequences are put before the court at sentencing. The visa waits for the outcome.
What people ask us about VACCU
What is VACCU?
The Visa Applicant Character Consideration Unit is a specialist unit inside the Department of Home Affairs that assesses visa applications referred to it because they raise a character concern under section 501 of the Migration Act. It assesses applications; cancellation of visas already held is handled elsewhere in the Department.
Does a VACCU referral mean my visa will be refused?
No. A referral means the application raised a concern that a specialist unit will assess. Many referred applicants pass the character test after the assessment, and for those who do not, refusal is a discretion exercised under Direction 110, not an automatic result.
How long does VACCU take?
No timeframe is promised. The Department reported fewer than 4,000 files with the unit in 2025 and said many files finalise within months, while its 2023-24 figures showed about a quarter finalised within three months, half within a year, and the longest running for several years. Serious conduct and missing documents drive the long end.
Will I be told that my application has been referred?
Not always. Many people learn of it only when they ask the Department why the file has stalled after health and police checks. You will hear from the unit if it needs documents from you or if the delegate is minded to refuse and must give you natural justice.
Do spent, juvenile or overseas convictions count?
Yes. The character test looks at convictions anywhere in the world, and Australian spent conviction schemes do not remove a conviction from the Department’s assessment. Declare all of them and explain them, because the police certificate will show them anyway.
Can I withdraw my application and reapply to avoid VACCU?
Withdrawing does not remove the record or the concern; a new application asks the same questions and reaches the same unit. Withdrawing after a natural justice letter can also leave adverse information on your file without your answer to it. Get advice before withdrawing anything.
What is the difference between section 501 and public interest criterion 4001?
Section 501 is the power to refuse or cancel a visa on character grounds. Public interest criterion 4001 is the requirement in most visa criteria that the applicant satisfies the Minister they pass the character test, or that the Minister has decided not to refuse. VACCU’s assessment feeds both, and Direction 110 guides the discretion.
I have been refused on character grounds. What now?
If you are in Australia and a delegate made the decision, you have 9 days from notification to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal, with a fee of $3,727 that can be halved for financial hardship. Section 501E limits the other visas you can apply for while you remain. Get the decision to a lawyer the same day.
- Migration Act 1958, section 501 (Federal Register of Legislation)
- Ministerial Direction no. 110, visa refusal and cancellation under section 501 (Department of Home Affairs)
- Character requirements for visa applicants (Department of Home Affairs)
- Administrative Review Tribunal, migration and refugee fees
- Form 1023, notification of incorrect answers (Department of Home Affairs)
If your file has gone quiet, or a letter has arrived, talk to us before you answer
Character submissions, natural justice responses and tribunal applications from Melbourne migration lawyers. One consultation, a written plan, and the file built before the Department asks.
