What is the story if you submit an application for merits review to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and there is some “irregularity” relating to payment of the prescribed fee? 

For example, what is the situation if the application is made on a “paper form” and the part of the form calling for the signature of the credit card holder to authorize payment of the fee is not actually signed? 

What happens if your client is granted a reduction of the application fee on grounds of financial hardship but fails to pay the fee within the time specified by the Tribunal? 

DIBP has warned that sc457 applications including sponsorship, nomination and the visa application must be decision-ready or risk refusal.

Responding to Migration Alliance enquiries, a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration has stated that because the lodgement of incomplete applications has been an ongoing issue for the 457 processing network, the department has ‘adopted the approach of making decisions on incomplete applications at time of initial assessment.’

This means an application could be refused the very next working day, after lodgement.

Migration Alliance enquired with the DIBP upon seeing a report that an applicant who lodged their visa late on Friday was refused the Sponsorship application on midday Monday as the required evidence was not uploaded with the application.

The latest response from the DIBP to the Migration Alliance is contrary to a report which said that “The MIA [who also enquired on the matter]…was advised that [the sponsorship application refusal] may have occurred as new staff were working on SBS applications.”

Article by RMA Michael Jeremy

Partner visas make up approximately 25% of the permanent visas granted in Australia, each year. In the last migration program year this was about 48,000 places.

For Australia, that would be a sizeable inland town.

Migration Alliance members would have likely received an email advertisement from 'Officio' advertising the following:

"If your MARA registration expires soon get LEGENDcom free"

An earlier promotion from Officio first came to the industry's attention last year.  It is our understanding that Officio is buying a limited LEGENDcom subscription on behalf of agents who sign up with them as a sweetener or “loss leader”.  It is our understanding that Officio are backing themselves that migration agents, having signed on, will want to keep using their product into the future. 

Not many read the fine print setting out the terms and conditions of use for the Immiaccount. Know it or not, given most visa applications are lodged online, users actually don’t have much of a choice but to click and agree whatever those terms and conditions may be.

Responding to Migration Alliance enquiries, the DIBP recently informed the Migration Alliance that the Immiccount T&Cs have been amended to impose additional requirements at clauses 7.2(c) and 7.6. Now, third-party users, namely agents, are required to get permission from their clients before making any Immiaccount enquiries on their clients. These clauses specifically require agents to explain to their clients that these enquiries may be used by the DIBP to locate that person and determine if that person is complying with their visa conditions.

There are an estimated 100,000 undocumented workers in Australia at the moment. RMAs should be aware and importanly make their clients aware that enquiries about their status or entitlements could well lead to the DIBP using the information obtained from such enquiries to locate that person, detain and deport them.

Education and Travel Agents using the Education Agent Visa Lodgement Service and Travel Agent Visa Lodgement Service have several clauses (Clauses 17-20) setting out their obligations and restrictions. Education Agents – including RMAs who are acting as Education Agents – have the following restrictions:

19.5 An Agency must not accept a person as a client if the Agency or any Employee of the Agency would have any of the following conflicts of interest: