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The anguish of being a registered migration agent
Nobody ever tells you how hard it is going to be when you first sign up to do the RMA course. At first it seems like a very cool and perhaps prestigious way of earning a living. Not only that but it seems like a living where helping others to achieve their dreams of a new life in a new country will also have an altruistic aspect to it.
Little does anyone know how hard it really is to be a registered migration agent.
Let me tell you a little bit about my suffering as an agent since 2001 so that somehow I might be able to comfort you in your time of grief. I am not sure how to write this other than to list the various client issues, OMARA complaints and other such things I have been through.
Firstly, I had a client once by the name of Rort (not his real name). Rort if you are reading this you will be able to identify yourself. Rort was referred to me by my father who sat on a board of executives with him. He was originally from South Africa and now in Australia. He had a daughter who he wanted to remain in Australia, but refused to get her a student visa because he didn't want to pay for it. Instead he kept flying her in and out of Australia on visitor visas. I told him to stop doing this as it was not the primary intention for his daughter to come here and study full time on visitor visas. He didn't listen. Eventually the DIMA (as it was called then) cancelled the daughter's visa and guess what? Rort blamed me. Not only that but he told my father that unless we did a MRT application for his daughter he would be very angry. He told my father 'I have had people kneecapped for less than this'. My father passed this message on to me and told me to be very careful. I considered going to the police. However as I was in Brisbane at the time and Rort was in Mosman, Sydney, I decided to leave it. I also didn't want to get dad into any serious social or business trouble.
Then there was a French client with a tattoo on his neck who wanted to see one of the agents who worked at Visacorp. He was not available to see the French client as he was on the phone and had not made an appointment. The French client walked into the agents office, past my desk and dragged him out of his chair and held him up against the wall by his neck. He wanted to talk about how to stay in Australia and he wanted to talk about it right now.
Then we had a client who wanted to see me because the DIMIA (then called) was taking too long to process his 457 visa. He had become overly frustrated and would not accept the advice we were giving him over the phone. He decided to come into the office and demand to see me and if I did not see him to tell him face to face that his visa was being processed, there was nothing we could do, that he would stay in the office until I came out and saw him and told him again. I had to walk out and tell him (and his friend) who decided to shout at me for the processing timeframes being my fault. Then they decided to start yelling at me because I am an agent and I am supposed to make everything go faster for the client. I told them to take a seat and that I would call the police who would be able to come and help them leave my office.
Then there are the clients that simply refuse to pay. Then they make up complaints when you ask for your final fee from them as if in some way to justify not paying a fee. Any complaint will do for these types of clients. Complaints range from 'lack of contact' or 'not responding quickly enough according to their exacting standards' or 'not telling me that I needed to do XYZ' despite them having been told plenty of times. These clients think that by taking their complaints to the Office of the MARA and dragging the complaints out that I will buckle in and give up as it is just too hard to deal with it all. The OMARA investigate heavily and come up with nothing each and every time. Never a suspension. Never a cancellation. Just hours of wasted time.
I have had plenty of complaints against me by clients over the years. Some have ended up with s308 interviews. One client in particular by the name of Peter, was not in fact a client. He decided to complain about me because he submitted his own application. Before he did this he came to see me and I gave him some advice and sent him a fee agreement to proceed with my services. Did he take up the services? No. He went on without me. He then accused me of being his 'agent' after it was refused. This dragged through the OMARA for about 12 months and wasted so much of my time. In the end, Peter was found to be the culprit for his own doomed application. I was left with two massive files of documents and hours upon hours of wasted time trying to prove my innocence to the OMARA.
For all those clients out there that think being an agent is a walk in the park, think again. We are dealing with a highly volatile set of variables when choosing to take on a client to prepare, present and submit a visa application to Australia. Variables such as DIBP personalities, bias of case officers, client personalities, their partner and that personality, anxious and irritable people who want everything done yesterday, demanding employers who generally want to do the bare minimum to achieve a great outcome as soon as possible and the list goes on. There are PAMs and legislation to consider and then health and character of not only the applicant but their family as well, if the applicant declares their whole family in the first place (long lost kids, a first wife who disappeared and missing brothers and sisters). Then there are the clients who tell you they have't got a character record. Their record is returned to you for inclusion on the lodged application and it is 3 pages long full of crimes and prison sentences. That is what I have dealt with before. Clients will lie to get into Australia. They will lie to you. They will lie to themselves. They will lie to the DIBP and the skills assessing authorities. But somehow under our code of conduct it is up to us to determine that they are telling the truth. What do I say about that chestnut in the code? 'WHATEVER!' How is that even enforceable?
Last year I was looking after a protection visa application. Fees all paid. Wonderful client. Great claim. Client was obviously killed or went underground to save his own life. I think the former. He was on the run in Afghanistan with his family. First, contact every single day. Then one day, no contact. No contact ever again. A life cut short. A future in Australia gone. A chance for me to help gone. Sometimes it does hurt.
Or the protection visa I did for a white South African 44 year old intellectually disabled female. The case officer interviewed her to determine her claim. The poor woman was so intellectually challenged she didn't fear for her life in South Africa, being on her own as a single white female with the intellectual capacity of a 4 year old child. This was a sad story which made me cry on more than one occasion. The client was bashed in-utero whilst her mother was pregnant which cut off the air supply to the baby. As a result the intellectual problems were created. I eventually got this client PR here through protection. There was a lot of pain and suffering as I put together the case and listened to her auntie tell me the stories of rape and violence. Sitting in the meeting room I was reduced to tears on more than one occasion. I just wanted to get her PR. And I did.
My favourite client, and I really mean this, was a guy called Matt (not his real name). Matt was a British wide boy from Essex. After submitting many 457s for him and various companies he worked for, he was on the path to a very successful career. A real wheeler and dealer with his nose in everything. Then one day he arrives in my office sweating, out of breath and asks me to help him. He told me that men were waiting for him outside his office dressed in black coats and that he could not go back there as they were going to kill him. I took him into my board room and locked the front doors to my immigration practice. he explained that he was frightened for his life and that a couple of deals had gone bad and that these men were after him. He was very twitchy ahd could not stop moving. I explained I was going to call the police to get him protection. I was not sure what to do other than to call the police. He agreed as he wanted help. They police arrived. Approximately half an hour later, Matt was sectioned and taken to a mental hospital, later diagnosed with bipolar and rapid cycling. He was dosed up to the eyeballs on drugs and was unable to see his son for a while. Matt is now out, married and has a new young son. It was anguish watching him being led away that day by the police.
If you have any similar experiences as an agent then please feel free to share them. I no longer take on clients because I am quite frankly sick of the anguish. I keep my registration simply out of some sick personal need to 'remain an agent'. Now it has become like a badge of honour. These days I prefer spending my time helping other agents.
Hats off to all RMAs who are able to battle on year after year with intolerable clients and case officers who seem to have developed an art form out of 'blocking' techniques. Is there some kind of manual in the DIBP called 'How to shut down communication with a RMA and deal directly with a client' with a subheading 'achieving the result you want by removing the agent from the equation'.
Yes, this is just a rant about the worst type of clients, and yes, there are awesome clients too. That will be a story for another blog.
By the way the Migraton Agents Section at DIBP in Canberra are decent human beings and I like them very much. That's probably because they aren't client facing.
Share your story.
Comments
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Wednesday, 29 January 2014I had overseas clients demanding refund of my fee and skills assessment fee, because they did not obtain sufficient IELTS test score to file visa (previous regulations). This is despite an agreement clearly mentioning the IELTS test score requirement and that it is beyond Agent's capacity. They even influenced the police who also said that I had refund all fee including any government fee because clients have not obtained the IELTS score and have changed their mind. There were plenty of occasions where client get all initial advice, even sign agreement, but drop after reaching midway and demand fee refund - including fee paid to government authorities and use their police influence. (Of course this is overseas). When the cost agreement is shown to explain our refund policy, it reaches deaf ears and again we are blamed saying that the agreement is specifically made for agent's side and they have not read it! It never ends. All we need is to get GOD's mind to survive as agent.
· Liana - Allan likes this comment. -
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Yes, it is all our fault that clients don't read the agreement before they sign it. We must have forced them to become clients, right? Because after all they didn't need us in the first place and 'could easily have done it themselves if only they had known how easy it was'. I can hear myself saying 'yes because we are trained to make it easy for you, you f****'.
But instead I methodically re-explain everything to them for the umpteenth dozen times with a smile on my face, gritting my teeth. And then I need to get a lawyer because they end up complaining to the OMARA about some unstated issued which emerges out of thin air because I dare to ask them to now pay my fees. Yes, the visa gets approved. And then they complain it was approved too quickly. They wanted to arrive in Australia later. It goes on and on and on......
I mush prefer dealing with migration agents. -
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
OMG freaking out. I was thinking about becoming a migration agent but reading all these stories makes me think that the clients and the Office of MARA and Departmental case officers will ruin my life. I thought that Departmental staff would respect migration agents because of their education and knowledge. Obviously not. I don't want to spend my life banging my head against a brick wall. Maybe I will join the department of immigration so I can become an arrogant baddie. Or maybe I will just find another occupation.
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Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Fortunately, in my 10 years as a Registered agent, I have not had to face such difficult clients …though I do have clients who cumulatively owe me approx. $35000 in unpaid accounts plus another $50,000 from a MARA agent, who won’t pay me for the work I did for them.
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Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Prospective RMA here who is awaiting MARA decision regarding initial registration.
Knew of the issues in the profession, but reading it first hand from LA has put it all in a different light.
Freaking out after reading all this. Was I too naive? -
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Liana,
I would like to thank you for the laugh and for making me feel heaps better about my day(s) and dealing(s) with the public and with humans in general!
I was threatened to be taken to court for not lodging the visa in time (student visa, just before the change of VAC and introduction of the subsequent temporary application charge)
The fact that i had no signed agreement, agent authority form nor i have received any payment for fees (credit card information or anything that might be usable to pay the VAC) didn't bother the applicant.
Took weeks to sort out the issue and several bottles to wine to forget it ever happened...
Love the "the joys of being a migration agent" section idea -
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Thank you for sharing your stories with us all.
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Wednesday, 29 January 2014
I am not sure if this blog is open to the public. I hope not. The fact is some of the issues raised in comments are of concern. It is our responsibility as Agents to act professionally at all times and part of this professionalism is dealing with Clients and managing their expectations. If a Clients requires as part of their skill assessment, employment experience and or a level of English proficiency or to obtain points then it is our responsible to make this clear in our Contract of Agreement of initial advice to the client. In may cases if IELTS is required to be at a certain level I advice the Client to obtain an IELTS assessment prior to accepting a contract of engagement.
If a client who wishes to continue with processing there application without having this information I make it very clear in my Preliminary Assessment that they need to fulfill this requirement.
Whilst I can not be held responsible for any false or misleading information provided it is my responsibility to ask relevant questions that may effect their application. This also includes issues related to good character and issues that may relate to dependent secondary applicants.
In providing a professional service and in full compliance with the code of conduct we not only best serve our clients bit also the profession as a whole.
The old addadge is the customer is always right is the basis of any professional contract. If a conflict appears then it is the responsibility of the Agent to address these issues and if need be refer the case.
Most of my difficualties is steering though the various and differing policies applied by each of the Assessment authorities. There certinaly is a lack of consistency and standardisation in their services,
The other main concern is IELTS and Government policy in awarding points. We have all seen situations where a candidate has sat the IELTS test numerous times and had variing results., results that are inconsistent with outlying statistics and results that always just being the candidate just below their target score.
There is a clear need for a review of the English Testing System. It needs to be open up to other registered providers and subject to a m ore transparent review process
the points allocated for English Languae ability needs also review. A candidate that scores an average score of 7 but falls below 7 in one component should be able to claim a point score of 5 and likewise a candidate that has an average English level score of 8 should be able to claim 15 points
This fairer allocation of points would remove or minimise the impact of outlying testing scores and give a candidate due credit for their language skill.
Sadly there is little to no debate about the merits and application of the IELTS testing system. A system that has a legislative monopoly and lacks open and transparency. A industry that is worth over a billion dollars a year -
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Hi Liana,
yes I can relate to your RMA wows
Similar experience here of a different vein though. -
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Thanks everyone for their posts, and especially for Liana for creating such a post. It is definitely sobering to realise what can happen, and the sort of clients that you can get. I'm newly registered and I have yet to experience these things (hopefully never) but I'm sure the day will come!
Maybe it would be good to discuss in the forums:
- more war stories (very entertaining and enlightening!)
- best practices in managing clients, case officers and OMARA
- best practices in protecting yourself eg what clauses you have in your contract
- any other practice tips that you can suggest? -
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Thanks Liana - I hear you ! For me there was the case of the client who was so palpably anxious from the start, the anxiety exuded from him like a miasmic aura - the phone calls kept mounting over ANYTHING - into the hundreds - the old line "If I haven't contacted you then you KNOW there is no news yet" must have been funneled into this void in his brain where no echo is heard.
Suffice to say - one day when, much to my shock I see his leering face at the front window of my actual home, cupping hands over eyes to try to "see better if you were home" - I had had enough and when confrontation ensued he threatened to call the police on me on the risible grounds that " I didn't feel safe when you spoke to me like that". If only he knew - words are my weapons ! (His visa was approved in record time and his offers to 'wine and dine me out of overwhelming gratitude' were swiftly refused)
Then the fellow who sat stony faced through all contact, all visa applications, hardly batting an eyelid, let alone allowing an emotion to shine through - ring him with the good news of quick decision from Thailand - always a rewarding part of the job or so I thought - the torrent of shouted abuse that harangued me "now that I am free to tell you what I really think since the visa cant be effected" - apparently the 4.5 month waiting time from Thailand on a Partner visa "cost him 3 months of having to pay for her over there since a friend told him it should be 6 weeks" and so he demanded I pay him "3 months at $1500" which were his costs for 'keeping' his beloved while waiting - so $4500 or MARA would be contacted.
So much for sharing the good news !! -
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Stephen have you got any more examples yours have been the most brilliant so far (apart from Liana of course who is equal to you)
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Thursday, 30 January 2014
Imagine if we put together our stories for a TV drama!
I had a client whose student visa application was cancelled because he did not attend classes. He was too busy working.
I was given the client by my place of work. The first interview is free.
At the interview, he was given all the documents to sign. He did not sign then. He will come and sign it on the day that we were going to fax the review application.
On the last day for review, he arrived with his friend. Between them, they had a credit card, the friend's mother's credit card.
Because they arrived just before the end of the day, and it was the last day that he could lodge an application for a review, I faxed the MRT application with no payment.
Client was going to come back the next day with client agreement, signed plus deposit and review application fee.
The next day, no client. I withdrew the MRT application and notified the client. The very next day, he arrived at the Office and started abusing me, blaming me for all his problems.
Needless to say, we did not part on good terms. -
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Very nice post and also useful. I read every comments carefully. Thanks a lot.
So suggest me-
http://www.aimcaustralianvisas.com.au/ -
Saturday, 29 March 2014
Thank you so much for your helpful article , Liana.
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Sunday, 15 June 2014
Hi Liana,
I'm new in this filed as I recently enrolled for the RMA course and don't have much experience of this filed. But after reading your blog, I'm not sure if I'm making the right decision. I'm a migrant myself though did our own case(spouse visa) and I hold Law degree from overseas too. And currently working in a bank but not interested in it for longer term but I'm single parent and current job doesn't seem to be enough. So, thought of trying to do RMA. But can you advise if it's good in terms of earnings also by either working with someone or as an independent agent? -
Wednesday, 23 July 2014
the worst is when a migration agent goes out of his way , to ruin another migration agent....
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Saturday, 21 November 2015
Hi, I am thinking about getting qualified to work as a migration agent part-time? Is there enough business out there? Are these stories relating to the majority of clients, or just a few bad ones along the way?
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Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Hi Liana i noticed you have not been replying to the comments above. I hope all is well for you.
Immigration blog
I feel they have this concept and rules that we need to fit into but they have not really tested them in the real world. It is quite a slap in the face to abide by and try and live up to the expectations of OMARA and DIBP who have no idea what they are asking us to do. The clients expect agents to do the best to suit them, OMARA expects agents to purely abide by the Code of Conduct and does not expect clients to complain, OMARA's and DIBP's attitude towards us is that "Agents are always wrong and dodgy". We are responsible to everyone and Clients, OMARA, DIBP owe us nothing, not even respect as a Professional. It almost feels like we are the punching bag for everybody and anybody only because we are getting paid.