M5 Shelves Conviction Data Swap: The Facts Every Visa Applicant Should Know
News · 2026-09-28 · 4 min read
Five of the most popular destinations for skilled workers have stopped work on a plan to share records of crimes committed by their own citizens. That headline can easily be misread. Here are the plain facts on what has stopped, what continues, and what you should do about it.
The decision in brief
In April 2026, leaders of the Migration 5 (M5), meaning Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, agreed to freeze a proposal under which they would have exchanged conviction data on their own citizens. If you are getting ready to relocate to any of the five, take note. But do not mistake this for looser screening at the border, because that is not what happened.
Where the information still flows
Let us be clear: "shelved" is not another word for "nothing shared." The M5 partners keep running automated exchanges of identity and biometric data. New Zealand has had deals of this kind with most partners from the early 2010s onwards; the UK is the one exception. A framework to control quality was agreed by the partners in May 2025, and annual reviews started for the first time in early 2026. When New Zealand reviewed the 2025 calendar year, it recorded zero privacy breaches, zero security problems with access to the system, and no disclosure to any partner that was accidental or improper.
How busy the system is
Numbers made public through New Zealand's Official Information Act tell the story:
| Direction of requests | What the figures show |
|---|---|
| From Australia, sent to New Zealand | Above one million requests for traveller data across the year ending April 2026, producing 676 matched fingerprints |
| From New Zealand, sent to Canada, Australia and the UK | Close to 4,000 requests to each, with 383, 340 and 283 positive matches in that order |
| Canada and the US | Figures on their requests were redacted; New Zealand kept back its numbers for requests to the US on international relations grounds |
Set against that volume, the match count is low. In other words, this is a wide screening tool that singles out only a few cases, probably people who already came to notice with the immigration authorities of another member country.
What the shelved proposal actually covered
According to RNZ's reporting, the M5's present arrangements were set up to handle identity data in migration matters and were never about criminal history. Nothing in them sends conviction records to New Zealand Police, and member countries do not use them to pass on information about their own nationals.
Newer discussions tested a narrower option: putting anonymised fingerprint data through police or criminal record systems as a search. New Zealand's view was that its present law offers overseas agencies no basis to get at conviction data held by its police or courts for immigration purposes. Immigration New Zealand's identity manager, Matt Gibbs, confirmed that neither biometric data nor conviction records were exchanged while the idea was being explored. The working group behind it has held no formal meeting since a virtual session in March 2025.
The legal wall that halted it
Put simply, legal limits stopped the plan, not a lack of interest. Every country runs its own privacy and criminal records rules, and none of them automatically opens a domestic justice system to the border agency of a partner. Lawmakers would have to act before any future version could go ahead.
Your action checklist
- Tell the truth about criminal history where the form asks. Direct conviction data exchange or not, police certificates and character declarations are normally part of a visa application. Lying on them can get you refused or banned.
- Make every detail match. Identity data is already moving between these countries, so a different name, birth date or travel record on two forms can be picked up.
- File your records properly. Your earlier visa applications, any refusals and your travel documents count for more once identity data crosses borders.
- If your history is complex, get qualified advice. Anyone with a past conviction or refusal should see an immigration lawyer or a registered migration agent before applying. Deal only with properly registered advisers, never with someone promising to make a record disappear.
- Do not count on the pause lasting. Should legal frameworks change, governments can pick the idea up again.
The straight answer
Sharing of citizens' criminal convictions has been pulled back by the M5, yet its identity and biometric exchange keeps running and is heavily used. For any applicant, honest and consistent information across every application is still the safest way forward.
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