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Border Data Sharing After the M5 Pause: A Planning Guide for Skilled Applicants

News · 2026-09-28 · 4 min read

For professionals mapping out a long-term career overseas, how destination countries share applicant data is part of the planning picture. The Migration 5 partners have now paused a plan to exchange information on convictions recorded against their own citizens. This guide sets out what has been paused, what remains in place, and how to protect your application.

Key development at a glance

The Migration 5 (M5) brings together Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. In April 2026 its leaders agreed to suspend work on a proposal to trade conviction data relating to each member's own citizens. If one of these countries features in your career plans, the pause deserves attention, although it does not signal any reduction in border scrutiny.

Understanding the original proposal

Reporting by RNZ indicates that the existing M5 arrangements centre on identity information used in migration, rather than on criminal history. They provide no channel for conviction records to reach New Zealand Police, and members do not rely on them to exchange details of their own nationals.

More recent talks examined a narrower concept: running searches of police or criminal record systems with anonymised fingerprint data. New Zealand's assessment was that its legislation, as currently written, gives overseas agencies no basis for access to conviction data from its police or courts for immigration purposes. Immigration New Zealand's identity manager, Matt Gibbs, confirmed that throughout this exploratory stage there was no exchange of either biometric data or conviction records. The relevant working group's last formal meeting was a virtual session in March 2025.

The legal constraint

The proposal was halted by legal limits rather than a lack of interest. Each member operates under its own legislation on privacy and criminal records, and that legislation does not automatically allow the border agency of a partner to examine domestic justice systems. Lawmakers would need to act first before any future version could proceed.

The exchange system that continues to operate

It is important not to equate "shelved" with an absence of sharing. Automated exchanges of identity and biometric data between the M5 partners remain in operation. New Zealand has maintained agreements of this type with most of its partners since the early 2010s, with the UK as the exception. The partners adopted a quality-control framework in May 2025, and the inaugural annual reviews commenced in early 2026. For the 2025 calendar year, New Zealand's review identified no breaches of privacy, no security issues relating to system access, and no improper or accidental disclosure to any partner.

Request volumes and match rates

Information released through New Zealand's Official Information Act illustrates the scale of activity:

• Australia to New Zealand: in excess of one million requests for traveller data during the year up to April 2026, resulting in 676 fingerprint matches.
• New Zealand to Canada, Australia and the UK: approximately 4,000 requests sent to each country, producing 383, 340 and 283 positive matches respectively.
• Canada and the US: data on their requests was redacted, while the figures for New Zealand's requests to the US were withheld with international relations given as the reason.

The modest match count relative to request volume points to a broad screening mechanism that flags only a small proportion of cases, most likely individuals who had come to the notice of immigration authorities in another member country before.

Protecting your application: five priorities

1. Maintain a well-organised document history. Earlier applications for visas, any refusals and travel documents become more significant when identity data is exchanged across borders.
2. Ensure accuracy across every submission. Because identity information is already exchanged, discrepancies in your name, date of birth or travel record may be detected in more than one system.
3. Disclose criminal history wherever requested. Regardless of whether conviction data is exchanged directly, applications generally require police certificates and a declaration of character, and providing false statements may lead to a refusal or a ban.
4. Engage qualified professionals for complex cases. Applicants with a record of convictions or refusals should obtain advice from an immigration lawyer or a registered migration agent prior to lodging.
5. Plan on the basis that the pause is temporary. Should legal frameworks change, governments may return to the concept.

Implications for your long-term pathway

The M5 has stepped away from exchanging citizens' criminal convictions, while its system for sharing identity and biometric data remains active and widely used. For any professional building an international career, accurate and consistent information across every application is the most reliable strategy.

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