Child Protection Checks on 117 Sponsors in 2026: When a Charge or Conviction Blocks the Visa
How registrable offence charges and convictions affect Subclass 117 sponsorship approval, whose record is checked, and what the official rules say.
Yes — a registrable offence can stop an Orphan Relative (Subclass 117) application before it ever reaches the visa decision. According to the Australian Department of Home Affairs' official Orphan Relative visa (subclass 117) page, as at August 2026, if the sponsor and/or their spouse or de facto partner has a pending registrable offence charge, the Department will refuse both the sponsorship and the visa application. A conviction is handled differently: the sponsorship can then only be approved in very limited circumstances. This is general information about how the rule operates, not advice about any particular family's case, and the current wording on the official pages should always be treated as the final reference.
What is a registrable offence in this context?
The term comes from Australia's child protection framework, not from the visa criteria you read on the immigration page. The subclass 117 page uses it without reproducing a full list of offences, and instead directs readers to the Department's own measures for the protection of children page for how the check is applied in practice.
That matters for how you read the rule. Because the visa page does not enumerate offences, the practical approach is to treat any offence that triggers reporting or registration obligations under child protection screening as potentially in scope, and to confirm the current position against the official pages rather than assuming a category is excluded. What the visa page does state plainly is the consequence, and it splits it into two situations.
What happens if the charge has not been finalised?
A pending charge is the harder case. The Department states it will refuse the sponsorship and the visa application where the sponsor and/or their spouse or de facto partner have a pending registrable offence charge.
Note what is and is not required: the term is "pending", so the refusal pathway is tied to the charge being unresolved, not to a finding of guilt. The Migration Regulations 1994 limit the discretion available to approve a sponsorship in these cases — regulation 1.20KB is the provision cited for that limit — and the current text should be checked on the Federal Register of Legislation, since the visa page describes the outcome rather than the mechanics.
Assume, for example, that an aunt in Perth agrees to sponsor her nephew and a charge is listed against her that has been adjourned but not heard. On the wording of the official page, that unresolved charge is enough to bring the refusal rule into play, even though nothing has been proven.
Is a conviction treated the same way?
No. A conviction sits in a separate category. Where the sponsor and/or their spouse or de facto partner have a registrable offence conviction, the Department says it can approve the sponsorship only in very limited circumstances.
The distinction is worth holding onto, because the two outcomes are not the same test. An unresolved charge leads to refusal; a conviction opens a narrow residual pathway rather than an automatic one. The official page does not set out what those limited circumstances are, so any assessment of whether a particular conviction falls inside them has to be made against the Department's published guidance and the legislation, not inferred from the visa page alone.
Whose record is checked, and who can sponsor anyway?
The check is not limited to the person who signs the sponsorship. The official page extends it to the sponsor's spouse or de facto partner, if there is one. That reflects how the criteria are written more broadly: under the Migration Regulations 1994, the sponsorship may be given either by the Australian relative, who must be at least 18, settled, and an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, or by that relative's spouse or de facto partner, who must meet those same age, settlement and citizenship requirements and be living with the relative.
The child, for their part, must be sponsored by an eligible sibling or step-sibling, grandparent or step-grandparent, aunt, uncle, step-aunt or step-uncle — and the sponsorship must be approved before the visa can be granted. So the relationship test and the child protection test are two separate gates on the same form.
Why child protection sits at the centre of this decision
The 117 visa exists for a child under 18 who has no parent able to care for them, because the parents are deceased, permanently incapable of caring, or cannot be found. The official page also states the visa may not be granted where doing so would not be in the best interests of an applicant under 18, and that the child's consent to migrate must be properly established.
Seen against that, the sponsor check is not an administrative side issue. The child is arriving into a household the Australian relative controls, often after trauma, and the sponsorship is the mechanism through which the Department decides whether that placement is acceptable. That is also why the assessment reaches the sponsor's partner — the partner is part of the household the child is entering.
What does the application involve?
The visa is applied for on paper, using Form 47CH and Form 40CH, with the child outside Australia when the application is made and when it is decided. The application charge must be paid before the application is posted, and the Department will not process it until payment is made.
On documents, the published checklist covers the child's identity, travel documents, photographs, evidence that no parent can care for them, and evidence of the relationship to the Australian relative. Children over 16 must provide police certificates from every country they have spent 12 months or more in over the last 10 years since turning 16; for Australia, only AFP National Police Certificates applied for under Code 33 – Immigration/Citizenship are accepted, and police certificates are valid for 12 months from the issue date. Children over 16 also complete Form 80. The sponsor's child protection check is part of the Department's assessment of the Form 40CH sponsorship itself.
What happens if the sponsorship is refused?
Because the sponsorship must be approved before the visa can be granted, a refused sponsorship stops the application at that point. The Department states it will tell you in writing why the visa was refused and whether there is a right to a review of the decision — so the review pathway, where one exists, is identified in the decision material rather than assumed. The application fee is not refunded if the application is refused.
Where a sponsorship problem is foreseeable, the practical question is usually whether another eligible relative can sponsor instead, or whether the child protection issue can be addressed before the sponsorship is lodged. Neither is a quick fix, and both turn on facts the official page does not resolve.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a pending charge mean the visa will definitely be refused?
The Department states it will refuse the sponsorship and the visa application where the sponsor and/or their spouse or de facto partner have a pending registrable offence charge. The trigger is the charge being unresolved, so the timing of the charge relative to the sponsorship decision is central.
Is a conviction an automatic refusal?
No conviction outcome is stated as automatic on the official page. Where there is a registrable offence conviction, the sponsorship can be approved only in very limited circumstances, which the visa page does not spell out.
Is only the sponsor's record checked?
No. The official page refers to the sponsor and/or their spouse or de facto partner, if any. That matches the broader rule that the Australian relative's spouse or de facto partner may themselves act as sponsor.
Can another relative take over the sponsorship?
The child must be sponsored by an eligible sibling or step-sibling, grandparent or step-grandparent, aunt, uncle, step-aunt or step-uncle, and the sponsorship must be approved before the visa is granted. Whether a different relative is a workable substitute depends on their own eligibility and their own child protection position.
What document tells me whether I can challenge a refusal?
The Department says its written decision will state why the visa was refused and whether there is a right to a review of that decision. The application fee is not refunded on refusal.
Do children need police certificates for this visa?
Children over 16 must provide police certificates from every country they have spent 12 months or more in during the last 10 years since turning 16, and complete Form 80. For Australia, only AFP National Police Certificates issued under Code 33 – Immigration/Citizenship are accepted, valid for 12 months from issue.