Debt to the Commonwealth and your visa: PIC 4004

MARN 1576536

The criterion

Public Interest Criterion 4004 provides that the applicant does not have an outstanding debt to the Commonwealth, or to a Commonwealth authority, unless the Minister is satisfied that appropriate arrangements have been made for payment of the debt. It is a criterion to be satisfied at the time of decision, it is written into the requirements of nearly every visa, temporary and permanent, and it applies to each applicant on the application, including family members. It has no waiver. Its only exception is the arrangement, which is why the practical answer to a 4004 problem is almost always to make one.

Which debts count

• Debts to the Department itself: the costs of immigration detention and of removal or deportation from an earlier stay, which the Act makes a debt of the person removed; unpaid visa application charges that were invoiced rather than paid at lodgement; penalties and infringement notices under the Migration Act.
• Social security: Centrelink and family assistance overpayments that have been raised as debts, including those under dispute, and advances not repaid.
• Child support arrears where the Commonwealth collects on behalf of the other parent.
• Tax: assessed income tax, GST and other amounts owed to the Australian Taxation Office that are overdue, including assessed compulsory HELP repayments not paid.
• Other Commonwealth loans and recoveries where an amount is due and unpaid: certain student loan arrears, Commonwealth-funded program overpayments, debts under Commonwealth contracts.

Which do not

Debts to a state or territory government, a local council, a public hospital in a state system, a university, a toll road operator, a bank, a landlord or an employer are not debts to the Commonwealth and do not engage 4004. Fines imposed by state courts are state debts. A HELP loan with no overdue amount is a Commonwealth debt under repayment arrangements set by law and is not treated as outstanding. Some non-Commonwealth debts matter elsewhere: an unpaid public hospital bill from an earlier visit is read against a visitor visa applicant's intentions, and a court fine can be a character matter. They are not 4004.

How the Department knows

The application form asks whether the applicant has an outstanding debt to the Australian Government, and the answer is checked. The Department holds its own records of detention, removal and charge debts, and it has data-matching arrangements with Services Australia and the Australian Taxation Office. A Centrelink debt raised years ago against a person who has since left Australia is found when they apply to return. The question on the form is also where an undisclosed debt becomes a second problem: an answer of no, where the person knew of the debt, is incorrect information, and PIC 4020 is a worse ground than 4004.

What an arrangement is

Full payment satisfies the criterion outright, and a receipt or a statement showing a zero balance is the evidence. Short of that, an appropriate arrangement is a repayment plan agreed with the agency owed, in writing, with the payments being made as agreed. Each agency has its own process: the Department's debt recovery unit for detention, removal and charge debts, Services Australia for social security and child support, the Tax Office for tax. The evidence is the written plan and the record of payments made under it. A plan that was agreed and then fell behind is not an arrangement, and the Department asks for a current statement. A dispute about whether the debt is owed is not an arrangement either; the debt is outstanding while the dispute runs, unless the agency has agreed to hold recovery, which is itself an arrangement if documented.

Clearing the ground before lodging

• Ask each agency for a statement. Services Australia and the Tax Office both provide debt statements online; the Department's debt unit confirms by email.
• Pay what can be paid, and keep the receipts.
• For the rest, agree a plan in writing before lodging, make the first payments, and lodge the plan and the payment record with the application.
• Answer the debt question on the form truthfully, with the arrangement explained in a short attached statement.
• Keep the plan current through processing. The criterion is assessed at decision, and a plan that lapses before then revives the problem.

Removal and detention costs

A person detained and removed from Australia is liable under the Act for the costs of their detention, their removal and, where applicable, the removal of their family, and the Department invoices those costs as a debt. The amounts can be large, and they follow the person: a later visa application from overseas meets 4004 and the debt together. The debt can be paid, or an arrangement made with the Department's debt recovery unit, and in defined circumstances the Department can waive or write off a debt on hardship or public interest grounds, which is a separate request with its own evidence. A person in this position applies for the next visa after the arrangement is in place, not before, because a refusal under 4004 is a refusal, with everything a refusal brings. The circumstances that produce these debts are set out in unlawful in Australia: what now.

If a refusal cites 4004

A refusal under 4004 is reviewable in the ordinary way for the visa concerned, and at the Tribunal the criterion is assessed again at the time of the Tribunal's decision, so a debt paid or scheduled after the refusal can satisfy it on review where review is available. For an applicant outside Australia without review rights, the route is a new application after the arrangement is made, with the earlier refusal explained. In either case the debt itself is the thing to deal with first, because no argument about the criterion substitutes for an arrangement. Visa refused: what now covers the review and re-application choice.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Public Interest Criterion 4004, Schedule 4 of the Migration Regulations 1994, and the debt provisions of the Migration Act 1958, as in force at the date above. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.