Breaking Australian immigration news brought to you by Migration Alliance and associated bloggers.
Praveen Goyal (pictured below) has created an entity called 'ME Alliance', also known as 'Migration and Education Alliance of Australia'.
Migration Alliance members have written in and called us to ask us whether the ME Alliance has anything to do with Migration Alliance Inc. It is on that basis that we have found it necessary to release this information.
By way of a background, the ME Alliance headed up by Praveen Goyal approached Migration Alliance Inc last year, and if my memory serves me well, perhaps even the year before that. Mr Goyal attempted on numerous occasions to negotiate with me and Christopher Levingston to establish a new association. The offer presented to Migration Alliance was, strangely, an almost-replica model of Migration Alliance Inc so naturally we did not proceed.
Mr Goyal told us that we had a trustworthy brand, and that he would like me and Christopher Levingston to lend credibility to the establishment of a new association. We decided against that.
Interestingly, ME Alliance has used a similar logo, a southern cross star pattern, to the Migration Alliance logo. This has been pointed out to us on numerous occasions by our members.
ME Alliance makes the following claim in the first sentence of it's website:
ME Alliance is the alliance of all stake holders of the migration and education industry of Australia.
ME Alliance is not an official stakeholder of the DIBP. It is not listed on their website or on the Office of the MARA website. ME Alliance is not, as far as I can see, a stakeholder of Migration Alliance or the MIA. It is also not a stakeholder at the MRT-RRT liaison meetings. These are key stakeholders in the migration industry. Law Council is also not part of the ME Alliance. What I would like to see are some facts and evidence which support the claims made on the ME Alliance website. Perhaps some links to the 'all the stakeholders' supposedly involved.
By way of information, Mr Goyal operates a company in our industry called McKkr's and a magazine called ME Magazine.
As many members would be aware, Migration Alliance has an exclusive industry agreement with Bupa. No permission was granted by either Bupa or Migration Alliance for ME Magazine to display a Bupa logo in the ME magazine.
It is my best guess that big brands placed into the first edition/s of the ME magazine were put there to lend credibility to the magazine and create confidence in new readers. Logic has it that if big brands are advertising in a magazine then this would give readers the impression that the magazine was worth being in.
The distribution and reach of the ME magazine is questionable. It has been claimed that the ME Magazine would be sent to TAFEs. Sydney TAFE have an exclusive arrangement with Migration Alliance Inc and have confirmed that they will not be distributing the ME Magazine.
My advice to the migration profession, in particular to agents who might be thinking of advertising on any web platform or in magazines, is to proceed with caution. Fact-find-first and ask for the evidence in writing when claims are made about 'hits' and 'visitors' and 'readership'. Agents are encouraged to engage in their usual due diligence before parting with any money.
Agents who would like to cross-check information provided to them before parting with money are invited to email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
A recent photograph of Praveen Goyal is provided below. Praveen Goyal has given himself the title of 'Executive Director' of the ME Alliance. By providing this photograph we hope that RMAs can easily identify Mr Goyal. Members should be aware that if approached by Mr Goyal and sold 'advertising space' or given any other offer, that this is in no way linked with Migration Alliance Inc.
An example image suggesting people sponsor ME Alliance is below:
This imagery is is not Migration Alliance and any sponsorships are not with Migration Alliance Inc.
Praveen Goyal (pictured below) is in no way associated with Migration Alliance Inc.
Yes, but at the CPD he does a subject on 402 so he trains agents on that so that they refer their clients to him to get money from the agents 402 clients. There is a side of me that says he gets money out of 402 CPD subject, and then in the CPD session itself he sells his 402 'opportunities' to agents so agents will tell their clients and he makes more money there. I think he also sells training benchmark b. He and his wife Neel Goyal also runs another company called SmartLine which I think sells mortgages. He sells a lot of stuff. Everywhere selling stuff.
I had the misfortune to be associated with Praveen Goyal for a few weeks some years ago.
Suffice to say, it only lasted a few weeks and his magazine was immediately filed in my bin
Thank you Liana. Your explanation and transparency is valuable.
I agree with Sharon. At least here at Migration Alliance we get a real honest version of things going on in this profession. I thought that ME Alliance was part of Migration Alliance and I was going to pay money to be in that magazine. I am relieved to know the truth. Thank you Liana. So thank you.
this is disgraceful. I thought that ME alliance was migration alliance but international version given the similarity or almost identical name. In my view this would be passing off. It is exactly same name in exactly the same industry. I don't know how a person could be such a copycat. Is this person a RMA? Can MARA do something about ethics? This is not ethical doing this.
Thanks for the timely clarification. I was going to ask Mr. Levingston or Liqna to clear the confusion.
Whilest I wasn't fooled by ME Alliance , it's nonetheless a good idea for MA to make it CLEAR to everyone.
Now it is very clear. I even thought the magazine was linked to Migration Alliance. Actually I now see that Praveen Goyal is a RMA and shows on the OMARA website as: https://www.mara.gov.au/search-the-register-of-migration-agents/registered-migration-agent-details/?id=8df4c65d-a252-e311-9402-005056ab0eca
I note with interest that none of his other business associations are showing on register.
Also check how different Praveen Goyal looks on this photo to the one on the register of agents. Changes like a chameleon.
Shahbaz that means you have not been to other CPD which is far better. I have also been to Praveen's CPD and I did not find he had the depth of knowledge the same as Christopher Levingston. He was only registered in 2008 where CHristopher registered in 1992 or something. Also Praveen is not a lawyer so he cannot advise anyone about court matters, appeals or anything like that. Have you tried Lorenzo Boccabella or any of the other accredited specialist CPD with Michael Jones or Nigel Dobbie? THese are all wonderful and much more advanced than Praveen.
Shahbaz are you serious? OK...maybe that is not really Shahbaz. Liana can you contact Shahbaz and check if he really thinks that and that it was really him who said that. I thought Praveen used to be a guest lecturer at LTA's CPD sessions sometimes for the 402 visas. Perhaps they stopped his presentations as I know agents such as me complained to LTA about Praveen going on and on for too long about his business. Once I saw him being told to stop and sit down as it was too long. I would not be surprised if he is doing exactly the same CPD subjects as Christopher delivers. I used to see him taking notes during Christopher's lectures up the back of the room after he gave his presentation. Perhaps Praveen took notes so he could set up his own CPD company. Perhaps not. I wonder how similar the material is. I mean, if someone thinks it was the best, then perhaps they have not seen Christopher Levingston yet, and they are getting a reconstituted version of what Christopher presents, which is the best. I also like Nigel Dobbie.
I did send a email to Liana and Christopher when the misleading email landed in my inbox a fe weeks ago. Praveen rang me immediately and tried to persuade me to discard my objection for another body the Agents and to be lumped to gather with student agents. I told him I refuse to be persuaded and we parted company. And, by the way, misleading and deception by way of "passing off" is the best form of flattery. At the moment I do have a situation where one party has incorporated a company name almost identical to mine and another party using my logo unashamedly. I take it imitation is the best form of flattery.
I attended his first CPD and his opening statement was "I am the expert in 402 and no one knows more than me as far as 402 is concerned". The cat caught his tongue when I could teach him a few things about 402 in front of 16 agents and later he said he knows a lot about the 402 but sure is not an expert. Later on he he made a fool of himself by getting into minor arguments with other agents who pointed out he was teaching wrong things about 457. I had a good laugh at him! Nigel Dobbie by far has much to offer.
I also attended that session and was embarrassed at Praveens lack of knowledge and pleading with the group who were mainly new agents to give input so that he could learn from them.
I left in disgust at the waste of time and wrote my concerns in relation to the misinformation about 457 visa to him and received a refund of the sessions I did not attend and was also told that I was not welcome to do any more training with McKKrs.
I have attended both Nigels and Chris's sessions and found them to be excellent and wont try to find the cheaper option in future .Just goes to show you get what you pay for. pay peanuts you get monkeys.
I fisrt saw him at LTA seminar presented by Christopher and Liana was there too in Sydney's Wesley Mission about 4 years ago.
He was peddling McKkr's and subclass 402, giving the impression that LTA and Liana and Christopher approve and encourage what he was doing. He exchanged cards with as many agents as he could and then I got a call to attend one of his gathering in Sydney to learn more about 402 and 457, when I arrived we were ushered in to a room and his talk lasted about 12 minutes and asked us to refer clients to him, and that's the last I saw of him. Like all of us I do get his magazine, but I was once warned about such publications that may come out Nigeria and so it went straight to the bin.
This is another scheme from, sorry to say, migrant knock offs in some ethic groups. I am migrant and I see this happening all the time They wish to create their own brand to promote them selves and their business as best in the market and they appeal to the local ethic communities as leader in the market. I have seen this pattern many times. New business opens same as business next door to get the clients from the original business. To me this is wasted money and time, why open something that has already been offered and there is not need for it in that particular market? I guess common business sense does not appeal to those "businesses". Normal business person will open their business in area away from another similar businesses to gain more market share not to be in fierce competition with 2-3 local established businesses for same customers.
In this sense I see ME Alliance as self-promotional business of the named principal. Their training might be ok, but reports are being charged at ridicules price even if you give the commission to the client as discount.
Richard Quirin (RMA)
I think this is an interesting discussion and in my view Liana’s clarification is timely as many of our colleagues in Melbourne’s South East were of a similar opinion as to a joint association between the 2 entities.
Clearly a lack of originality exists here. I suggest RMA’s make a meticulous assessment of alike services and make determinations from there. Have no objections to anyone starting something because they think they can do it better -however integrity has to be earned on your 'own' merits. Having served as an MA board member I can tell the membership when MA began there was a centralized focus on forging a new authentic identity that fundamentally diverged from the status quo.
I believe I registered with Paveen’s Benchmark B services through an MA or industry email some time ago. Don’t quote me on that. Anyhow, I registered with Mckkrs on the basis of receiving a generous referral commission – believing there was an MA relationship in place. I continue to use that service but would revert back to an MA sponsor that provided a similar commission incentive.
As to CPD’s and who is the best - I guess the measure will largely be based on how good one is as a migration practitioner and what sort of practice you operate. This will clearly inform one’s opinion don’t you think??
Personally, I have not attended any of Praveen’s CPD’s and tend to do cpd’s with LTA as a MA member via online study (hate the Melbourne City Traffic and parking nightmares) and at the live seminars when convenient. In the past I have been to Nigel Dobbie’s cpds and also with RILC. Now completing my 7th year of practice and having experience as a former MA board Member and having liaised with ‘official’ stakeholders ; I believe Christopher is hands down the best. In my personal opinion, I think Christopher’s approach to strategic problem solving is unparalleled in this profession. We can all read the legislation and the PAMs, what I believe I've learnt from Christopher is how to approach complex issues and how to approach them in a strategic manner to achieve out comes for my clients.
Cheers,
Sad state of affair of free-riders unfortunately. The number of things this guy sells is not even a joke. Talks are so big BTW if you've ever had the opportunity to speak to him but the moment you do, the first instinct to creep-in is - run! You just don't want to get involved. Have you checked his Linked-in? Seems like the platter is full. Someone with so much background should know better than lurking like a predator edging along Intellectual Property infringement, Trademark Policy violation and copyright violation and what not. And he is a lecturer? Wow. Wonder what he teaches in topics such as ethics-at-work.
He is just trying to push 402 visas to the vulnerable people.