Move over IELTS.    There will now be more choice in visa English language tests for Australia, writes Stefanie Balogh from the AFR.

In light of the recently reported bungle by a Virgin airlines employee who prevented a valid visa holder from boarding a flight out of Australia, the question must be asked: Do the airline check-in staff who have the power to decide whether a passenger gets on board have any decent training on visa rules?

Should airline check-in staff be required to have at least a basic certificate issued by an independent immigration training organisation before they are allowed to work at the airline check-in counter? They are after all playing judge, jury and executioner to unwary travellers dream holidays and travel plans.

These questions must certainly be on the on minds of Indonesian tourists Betty and her mother Lam-In

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph today, Betty and Lam-In have a 12-month multiple-entry visas that allow stays of up to three months at a time in Australia. Last month they planned to fly Virgin to Fiji with friends for a long weekend then return to Sydney. It would be fun and keep their visas intact.

But at Sydney Airport, a Virgin employee refused to check them in. Perhaps she misread the DIBP instructions on the computer. Perhaps she misunderstood it or was clueless. But she chose to rule the visas were no good as her interpretation was that “the date of return was more than three months after they last entered Australia”. Betty’s pleas to speak to a supervisor were ignored with the explanation that the supervisors would say the same thing and were too busy anyway.

The event on Monday 19th May was a huge success.

Please find the complete presentation by:

NAB - Paul Bailey, Grant Healy, Stacey Martin, Shannon Kong, Lily Huang

MA has received queries from members about rebates to 457 business sponsors for training benchmark contributions, recently offered by Gold Coast Institute of TAFE (GCIT).  The offer has raised concern about compliance with the DIBP training benchmark requirements.

MA has researched this issue and provides the following advice to its members.

The offer of a rebate to business sponsors will act to invalidate the statutory requirements for the relevant contribution required by the Act and the Regulations.  The resultant receipt is untrue and constitutes a false statement caught by section 234 of the Migration Act 1958.

Put simply, if a rebate is paid to the business sponsor then their requirement to pay a designated amount is not met and thus invalidates the relevant attempt to meet the statutory requirement.

Please note that Training Funds can pay commission to Migration Agents for client referrals.  Commission arrangements are best managed through a Referral Agreement.  The Agreement should clearly set out the obligations of both parties, especially the requirement for Migration Agents to disclose commission to their clients, in compliance with Part 2.2 of the Code.