Editor's Blog

MARA has made a decision to cancel the registration of an RMA after the Melbourne County Court found the agent guilty of ‘dishonestly influencing an officer of the Trades Recognition Australia” and has refused the agents request to delay its decision pending an appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

On 19 February 2016, Opinder Pal Singh Sekhon, an RMA who has been providing migration advice for over 9 years was found guilty, following a trial by jury, of seventeen charges of dishonestly influencing a Commonwealth Public Official, contrary to section 135.1(7) of the Criminal Code.

The seventeen offences with which the Agent was charged involved the Agent seeking to dishonestly influence an officer of Trades Recognition Australia in contravention of section 135.1(7) of the Criminal Code.

Anyone with a history of family or domestic violence may be banned from becoming a sponsor in a partner visa application under legislative amendments being considered by parliament.

Currently, sponsors face little scrutiny in the application process and do not require police clearances unless there are children under the age of 18 involved in the application. The Migration Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill, introduced in the March parliamentary sitting, however is seeking to screen Australians with a history of family or domestic violence from sponsoring a partner visa.

"We have, in relation to domestic violence, a very strong position as a government and that is we are not going to facilitate these arrangements where we think there is a reasonable risk that there may be violence in the relationship,” explained Immigration Minister Mr Peter Dutton.

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Super wealthy nationals from China, Europe, the UK, the US and South Africa are increasingly looking to get out of their home countries seeking out safe havens for their funds and lifestyle according to the report Millionaire Migration in 2015.

Sydney and Melbourne have been uncovered as the main destination cities for millionaires by the report with an inflow of some 4000 and 3000 millionaires in 2015 taking their totals to 95,400 and 66,800 respectively. Other Australian cities including Perth, the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Noosa and the Sunshine Coast were also named as favourite destinations for the super-rich - defined by the report as individuals with net assets of US$1 million or more excluding their primary residences.

The top cities with the greatest outflow of millionaires were Paris, Rome, Chicago, and Athens. The report claims that a record 10,000 millionaires left Paris last year due to rising religious/racial tensions. Similar reasons plus rising crime levels and deteriorating economic conditions were cited as reasons why the other cities were experiencing an exodus of the rich.

StartupAus board member Teresa Engelhard has warned DIBP that talent is more valuable than SIV investors and it needs to change its attitude and approach when dealing with such talent.

Her warning comes after officials from both the UK and the US rushed in to entice Chris Bailey and his nine-person team at Disrupt to setup his business there after Australia’s department of immigration recently threw-out the million dollar start-up entrepreneur for not picking fruit.

According to a report in The Australian Financial Review, Ms Engelhard, who once had a US$5 billion IPO to her name, has joined calls for the DIBP to be less combative and work with startups.

In a case that may just be the tip of the iceberg in immigration fraud by education brokers, a court in China has sentenced a man to three years’ jail for facilitating illegal immigration to Australia, according to a report in The Australian Financial Review.

The man, identified only as Mr Li worked with this sister Ms Olive Li, a director of Sydney-based New Field International Education Group in fabricating documents required for an Australian student visa for at least 2 applicants who are now Australian permanent residents.

According to the report after the fraudulent application was lodged, Ms Li posed as the applicants during the mandatory telephone interview with Australian immigration officials as the applicants could not speak English. She then coached the applicants on how to deal with queries at the airport, found them accommodation and jobs.