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Immigration Daily News DIBP's 'offshore IDs' used to dupe vulnerable Australian visa applicantsAustralian Immigration Daily News
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DIBP's 'offshore IDs' used to dupe vulnerable Australian visa applicants
READ THE COMMENTS FROM OFFSHORE AGENTS ON THIS BLOG: 17/06/2014
When is the DIBP going to do something about unregistered practice? When is DIBP going to help prevent vulnerable consumers from being duped by the DIBP's 'Offshore ID' status given out to unregistered agents? These ID's are being used to sell a range of immigration services to unwitting visa applicants, not just students.
The 'Offshore ID' is paraded around as an endorsement tool by unregistered agents overseas looking to instill confidence and security in potential clients who may be seeking to migrate to Australia. The issue is that most of the time, the potential clients don't even realise that there is such a thing as a RMA in existence on the planet. We can thank the OMARA and their $0.00 spend on advertising last financial year for that one. If migrants see a person with an ID, they, like me, would automatically assume that this person was a government endorsed immigration professional. Who knows what spin and lies are being sold to these unsuspecting visa applicants about how that 'offshore ID' was obtained.
I received the following email this week from a RMA who is of Indian heritage (I will keep their ID annonymous):
"......DIBP and MARA need to know about how applicants get exploited here in India by unregistered and unscrupulous agents. Also, many unregistered agents who have been assigned an offshore agent ID by DIBP, portray it as a special privilege and openly make claims of having contacts in DIBP and MARA.
Here’s an example (See the text on bottom right corner of the page) : http://www.dreamvisas.com/
While the Code puts many conditions on RMAs for advertising, the unregistered agents are having a field day...."
Check out the sensational claims on the Dream Visas website as follows:
"We are into Immigration Consultancy operating from Pune, India. Pune is a large city having a large number of skilled persons interested in migrating to USA, Australia, Canada, UK and other countries. We are mainly doing Immigration related work for these countries.I am member of ICCRC( Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council ) and my membership number is R422575.I am also member of Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC) and my membership id is M110193. For Australia , Department of Immigration and citizenship (DIAC) has giving me Offshore id as 3000526. We are having an excellent track record of more than 10 years & Hundreds of our clients are successfully settled in Australia. We have got a good network of our own resources & contacts in Australia at DIAC, MARA, MIA & other important platforms."
Do I really need to say any more? Don't worry I will be sending this to The OMARA. They might want to know that their organisation is being used to promote unregistered practice.
If you have had enough of unregistered practice please send complaints to the Immi dob-in service: www.immi.gov.au/dob-in.
Christopher Levingston states:
"the provision of immigration assistance by unregistered person is a criminal offence. It follows therefore that a person that aids and abets the commission of an offence is also guilty of that offence and can be charged and convicted with aiding, abetting and procuring of an offence. DIBP in providing 'Offshore agent numbers' and purporting to register 'offshore agents' not being Registered Migration Agents is knowing concerned in the provision of 'immigration assistance' in circumstances which disclose a criminal offence.
DIBP asserts that it cannot regulate that it cannot regulate conduct offshore as the Migration Act does not have extra-territorial effect. Australian embassies and high commissions are Australian territory. It follows therefore that DIBP officers either onshore or offshore, being Australian citizens, in the main, or Permanent Residents, operating out of Australian Territory aid and abet the provision of immigration assistance in circumstances constituting the traversal of the Migration Act 1958.
If Commonwealth DPP needs any help in drafting the indictment and prosecuting, for example, the Secretary of DIBP then I would be prepared to assist in that process as well as conducting the prosecution for free.
Failing that why not a private prosecution brought by members of MA?"
Comments
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Friday, 11 April 2014And here is another example on the website of Visa4You.
"People who provide immigration assistance in Australia must register with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority. People based outside Australia, who provide immigration assistance overseas, do not need to be registered in Australia. Visa4you has received an Offshore Agent Number (3010525) from DIAC, in order to communicate directly with the Australian Embassy and other Australian authorities."
This can be found on www.visa4you.co.uk/show/en/pagina/4/australie.html· Liana - Allan likes this comment. -
Friday, 11 April 2014
How about this one ? An Australian Registered Company provides Immigration Services offshore without the person in charge is a registered migration agent .
Look at this link at the ABN look up website http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?SearchText=57+140+729+853&Postcode=ALL&StateOptions=1%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0&NameOptions=1%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0&SearchWidth=&MaxResults=0
Look at the link of the website , especially top banner , http://www.behrouzian-lawfirm.com/%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%87%D9%85%D8%A7.aspx
The same company advertises in Local Newspapers in Australia. The person who claims that he is a lawyer on his website is not a registered migration agent.· Liana - Allan likes this comment. -
Friday, 11 April 2014
I have brought attention to multiple instances of this type of practice to DIBP, i work in the Latin American and Spanish market and i see numerous "immigration agencies" offering their "immigration services" to Latin American clients, both outside and inside of Australia. Furthermore, the number of "education agencies" offering immigration advice, also within and outside of Australia to Latin American clients is astonishing. Regrettably, as an Australian lawyer and MARA Agent i have to watch my back so i don't fall foul of the OMARA. As yet most of the agencies i have reported continue to work and continue to access Australian embassies without anyone blinking, personally i am frustrated and have felt like giving up on more than one occasion.
· Liana - Allan likes this comment. -
Friday, 11 April 2014
I think it will be good idea to collect as much information like this as we can and present it to DIBP in a submission. The company listed above advertises list of applications they have lodged at the following link http://www.dreamvisas.com/latest-aus-can-visa-clients.html so they can see most of the visas have nothing to do with Student visas.
Maybe you can make a committee or some interest group to sort the information collected by all members who will send samples from their respective fields and overseas advertisements they have found. Maybe in when DIBP is presented with this overwhelming evidence, they might rethink their position.· Liana - Allan likes this comment. -
Friday, 11 April 2014
Perhaps the link of this post can simply be sent to Lesley Dalton, the Director of Investigations at the DIBP ?
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Saturday, 19 April 2014
If you'd like any assistance, no matter how small, with the indictment I'd be glad to help Pro Bono.
P0003289 -
Tuesday, 17 June 2014
The constant claims by Mara members that all offshore agents are unethical/incompetent is offensive. It has an underlying tone of racism as well. Mara members propagate this automatically-there are plenty of corrupt and incompetent agents, being a Mara member does not mean that an agent is competent or ethical, just that they are a member. Being an offshore agent does not mean that an agent is incapable or unethical. This constant harping is weak marketing-why don't you advocate your practice rather than writing screeds? The extraordinarily high prices charged by Mara members makes their services completely unaffordable for many outside of Australia, there are potential language barriers, and as an offshore agent we specialize in our market and know it inside and out. Finally, offshore agents are regulated in their country of origin, Mara is not their regulatory agency. Your parochialism is showing. Try not to respond with a bunch of unsubstantiated nonsense : )
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Saturday, 22 July 2017
Any immigration related work in Australia ONLY MARA AGENT & IMMIGRATION LAWYER is authorized to undertake....the other option is candidate himself/herself do it online...Its not a matter of your market or our market its which market they are migrating....if they are migrating to Australia they have to follow the migration process and law made by Australia Immigration dept. as MARA Agent have to go through intense study & training related to australia immigration laws & every year they have to update themselves & now from jan 2018 they are going to make it 1 year with graduate diploma in Migration laws... and for migration lawyer its 3 years study and 1 year training...so how you can expect a whats so called untrained offshore id holders to understand australian migration laws they are not even australia citizens or PR...so its not about racism its about knowledge of our country migration laws and process defined by immigration authority....
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Tuesday, 17 June 2014
One is not a "member" of MARA.
One is "Registered" by MARA. Think of it as having a "licence" issued as a result of showing proved competence and continued ethical behaviour.
What do you have?
Nothing - apart from the capacity to fraud clients by making unprofessional claims.
You are NOT regulated in your "country of origin" - you assume we are stupid or is this (yet) another demonstration of unethical behaviour?
You can fool your rubes this way but not us! -
Tuesday, 17 June 2014
I think its got to do more with a lack of oversight and regulatory processes for you offshore agents, I don't see how you turn it into a racist issue. I have seen first hand what unregistered "agents" get away with, so i am not sure your argument that you are regulated in your country of origin comes into play? are you saying that you are regulated by the Australian government in your country of origin?
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Tuesday, 17 June 2014
This is what OMARA and DIBP have bred with their 'offshore ID's' and unregistered agents. CONTEMPT!
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Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Offshore agents now dislike OMARA registered agents and it's all out there now. Why? Because we threaten to take their dodgy livelihoods off them.
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Tuesday, 17 June 2014
More of the same-"offshore agents and their dodgy livelihoods", such a vast generalization-you read a few internet ads and then make such a supposition? We have been approached many times by applicants, that used a Mara agent to submit their application, which when we reviewed it, showed they had no chance of being approved...so I am personally familiar with examples of mara agent incompetence or lack of ethics. Now, would I jump to say you all hid behind Mara and unleash broad unsupported attacks on off shore agents, no because I know that wouldn't be true-am I adhere to ethics and careful judgment in my marketing as well as our work as an offshore agent.
The comment about the racist component comes from messages I received from Mara licensed agents when pointing out shortcomings in their claims about offshore agents. It was unbelievable that these were people holding themselves up as paragons of virtue, working for immigrant communities, and they were spouting such vile comments. I wonder how Mara feels about overt racism and bigotry expressed by there members. it was really quite a sad showing.
finally, the most common incomplete/misleading statement by Mara agents: you/they are unlicensed/regulated. Totally inaccurate and again reflecting the parochial views presented so often. Many of us are regulated etc, in the countries we operate in, of course. No of course we aren't regulated by Australia-Australia has national sovereignty, not international, surely the legal minds among you spent a few minutes in classes on international business law. You guys really ought to be more accurate in your claims, and really ought to address the fact taht your fee structures are crushing of the average offshore wage earner. -
Saturday, 22 July 2017
what a joke....now you want to say that you people are more competent than MARA agent who is professionaly trained & Australian citizen/PR.....that means you know our country laws better than us....is there any australian regulatory authority to authorize you as Registered agent for australia....its really funny you are migrating people to australia and talking about your country or territory.....you have to RESPECT the laws of country where you are migrating people not your own country as if like that start working with migrating people to your country where you are citizen...
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Tuesday, 17 June 2014
You are NOT regulated in your country of origin.
You are subject ONLY to the normal Laws of your land in terms of fraud.
But then, the legal standing of claims against you is hindered by the fact that the offence would be conducted in Australia.
Your persistence in claiming that you are "regulated" proves your unethical unprofessionalism.
Your claims of "racist" behaviour is no more than a smokescreen - and further evidence of how you operate. -
Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Dear Offshore
I am sorry you have had bad experiences with MARA registered agents. However I am very interested to hear what regulations you are subject to with regard to continuous professional development, a code of conduct, professional library and insurance to provide Australian immigration or visa advice in your country? Finally I would like to know what study you did to become qualified to provide Australian migration and visa advice. -
Tuesday, 17 June 2014
what is the point of keeping MARA agent...under code of conduct and other regulatory provisions when the offshore ID is easily available...and they are given free hand to cheat..the applications should be made mandatory to be filled through MARA Agent as in the case of Canada and NZ ...Thanks
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Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Thanks for that
CircumNavi http://www.circumnavi.com/ used our logo in emails to a potential customer offering them a fake employment contract. I have all of the emails where the representative from Circum Navi even provided details of the Australian Company (that had no idea it was being used until the applicant called them to discuss the job). Our logo is still being found on applications to the department. -
Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Dear Offshore,
1. Might I respectfully suggest that the next time you see a client who has been mis-represented my an OMARA registered agent as you claim, I suggest you provide them with a copy of the consumer guide and assist them with their compliant. After all and in all accuracy, unlike unregistered agents, we are fully accountable for our actions under Australian sovereign law and compensation can and should be claimed.
2. In respect of our onshore fee structures, these are again 'regulated' both through OMARA and market forces (I must have being paying attention to at least one of my classes) and reflect the cost of local factors such as wages (significantly higher than most other countries), property values, taxation rates (higher than most other countries), cost of living etc (seems I paid attention in another class as well) and of course our PI and Annual OMARA Registration fees
3. As for 'crushing average offshore workers' this seems an highly emotive statement when considered in light of our real costs and wholly inaccurate given that clients I have from overseas are paying less for my services than local agents in their country. I could of course ask if in the country in which you operate, does an Industry 'watch dog' make publicly available a fee range for migration agents so clients can be informed and fore warned? We might also ask if unregistered agents advertise their prices on their websites as some in Australia do? I think we know the answer to these questions.
4. As for your claims of racism by OMARA registered agents, I suggest you forward these to OMARA immediately.
Enjoy your day.
Immigration blog
“We have got a good network of our own resources & contacts in Australia at DIAC"
This is infuriating. If RMAs were to make the same claims on their websites they would be dragged over the coals by OMARA and undoubtedly sanctioned.
Yet anyone else, with potentially no qualifications or experience, can make any claim they want, to lure unsuspecting and vulnerable applicants. They can do this with impunity and apparent endorsement by DIBP.
They are so successful that they even use there offshore ID credentials to sell franchises:
“We … are one of the fastest growing Immigration consultant, due to trmendous [sic] growth in our company, we are looking for representative all over the world who are willing to work with us….For Australia, Department of immigration and citizenship(DIAC) has given me Offshore id as 3000526. We are pleased to welcome any enquiery in this repect [sic].”
“We offer the good commission, provided that the representatives act as a liaison between our organization and the client. All the questions the client may have should be directed to you. We will train you to be able to answer most of the questions the client may ask. If there is a question you cannot answer, you can tell us about it by e-mail, which will be the main method of communication between us.”