This SIV event is now at capacity.  The event will run as follows:

5pm:  Guest Registration

5.30pm - 7.00pm Presentations

The following has been received by the MRT-RRT:

I invite you to attend an Open Day at the Migration Review Tribunal as part of National Law Week 2014. National Law Week is an annual event designed to promote public understanding of the law and its role in society as well as raise awareness in the community about how to access legal services and advice. The theme for Law Week is “law and justice in your community”. 

The Migration Review Tribunal reviews a wide range of Department of Immigration and Citizenship decisions, including those relating to partner, family, business, skilled and student visas.  As part of National Law Week, the Migration Review Tribunal will hold information sessions in our offices in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.  

MA has made several attempts in the recent past to alert its members about pdtraining’s offer of paying referral commissions to RMAs through a debit card option.  

The concerns of MA was also brought to the attention of pdtraining.  

A tax and legal advice from Sydney Accredited Specialist tax lawyer, David Garde of Brown Wright Stein, was also made available to MA members to keep them informed and to restrain them from using pdtraining’s GST DEFEASANCE SCHEME.  Following our proactive approach, even MIA had withdrawn its endorsement of pdtraining’s offer and stopped endorsing pdtraining as their sponsor.  This was evident from MIA’s ‘Member Benefits and Discounts Newsletter ’.  Though MIA did not publicly admit the error, MIA has stopped promoting this deal which was deemed dangerous for its members and other RMAs working in the industry.

Natalie O'Brien has published this article today:

http://m.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/secret-blacklist-of-immigration-lawyers-20140503-37oyw.html

You may recall that Migration Alliance raised the issue of the A and B list of migration agents on March 12, 2014. In that article I had been in communication with the DIBP.  To read that article including the terrible information about Lists A and B of migration agents please click here:

The Migration Alliance is wondering whether OMARA is carrying out it's decisions in light of the decision of the AAT in the case of Asif Syed. The AAT found that an applicant for registration as a migration agent requires an IELTS test band score of 7 in each band but this can be just one of the factors which MARA must consider.

The Migration Alliance wants to know whether MARA is ignoring this instruction by still insisting that an English language proficiency test such as IELTS can only be considered as proof of an applicant’s English language proficiency.

If new applicants would like to create a letter to the Office of the MARA the following paragraph might be added (the paragraph is a creation of Michael Suss RMA):