Section 240 — Migration Act 1958: Offence to arrange marriage to obtain permanent residence

(1) A person must not arrange a marriage between other persons with the intention of assisting one of those other persons to get a stay visa by satisfying a criterion for the visa because of the marriage. Penalty: Imprisonment for 10 years or 1,000 penalty units, or both. (2) Subsection (1) applies whether or not the intention is achieved. (3) It is a defence to an offence against subsection (1) if the defendant proves that, although one purpose of the marriage was to assist a person to get a stay visa, the defendant believed on reasonable grounds that the marriage would result in a genuine and continuing marital relationship. Note: A defendant bears a legal burden in relation to the matter in subsection (3) (see section 13.4 of the Criminal Code).