The following email has just been received from the MRT-RRT:

Dear Community Liaison network members

I am pleased to provide the community liaison update for February 2014.

The Courier Mail reports that a MIGRATION agent and his wedding celebrant wife face up to 10 years in jail after being charged over an alleged visa scam in which Indian students paid for bogus marriages to Australian women.

Chetan Mohanlal Mashru and his Australian-born wife Divya Krishne Gowda were arrested by the Australian Federal Police in Brisbane yesterday on various counts and charges relating to migration fraud.

“Mashru, who has had his migration agent registration stripped, faces 49 charges including arranging fake marriages and lodging fraudulent visa applications with the Department of Immigration.

Gowda, who Immigration will allege performed the “marriages” that were the basis of the fabricated visa applications, faces 17 charges, “ states the report.

After threatening overseas students with a potential visa cancellation for switching courses DIBP has gone into damage control and is now reassuring students that this will not happen.

The Australian reports that DIBP has backed down, following protests from students and non-SVP providers, that DIBP’s crackdown was unexpected, unfair and causing much anxiety.

“In an email to the Education Visa Consultative Committee, the department says it “will not take any further action against students” who transferred from an SVP degree course to a non-SVP degree course before the January 14 “education campaign” and who meet all other visa conditions,” says the report.

Teaching foreign students is Australia’s fourth-biggest export earner, generating $15 billion a year in income and employing about 100,000 Australians. It is serious business. Poor media coverage and concerns over uncertainties with student visas had a devastating effect on the industry in recent years which is only just now starting to recover.

RMAs may have recently received an offer from PD Training offering a ‘Finders Fee” for referring clients who purchase some of their courses. Some RMAs have written to us concerned about the tax implications of the offer. Migration Alliance does not provide tax advice and therefore we suggest that RMAs consult their accountants in respect of any tax concerns. We have however put RMAs concerns to PD Training and set out their response below. We would like to hear what you think of this offer after you have spoken to your tax consultant.

The PD Training offers sets out as follows, quoting the wording of the offer:

“New Finders Fee Structure*

• 35% Finders Fee for agents when the client purchases eLearning including many Trade based courses - 100's of courses for all industries available*
• 10% Finders Fee for agents when the client purchases Instructor-led training*

How does it work?

With tens of thousands of Chinese coming to Australia for business and tourism, the Trade minister has announced that Australia will introduce a three-year multiple entry visa for Chinese business travelers. Details of the visa are to be released shortly by DIBP.

Broad details of the visa were announced by Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Rob, recently:

"Chinese business visitors will now be eligible to apply for a three year multiple entry visa, increasing the prospect of repeat visits to Australia, which would be warmly welcomed by our tourism sector...

"These changes will also support the government's ambitious trade and investment agenda and increase the opportunities to do business with China. Total Chinese investment in Australia grew more than eight-fold between 2002 and 2012, to 23 billion AU dollars (20 billion U.S. dollars) and we want to see stronger continued growth," Robb said.