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Immigration Daily News Your biggest fear about Australia’s immigration department is real.
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Your biggest fear about Australia’s immigration department is real.
Complaints have emerged that the Department of Immigration (DIBP) is recklessly dishing out wrong advice to callers on their helpline.
Faceless, unaccountable, just plainly wrong and recklessly dangerous. There is no other way to describe DIBPs Immigration Helpline. Or should we call it the "To-Hell-Line". The Migration Alliance has received complaints that DIBP's 131 881 helpline is dishing out bad advice to unwary visa applicants.
Callers who put down the phone after waiting 30 minutes may well be the lucky ones. It's like missing a doomed flight.
You have to wonder which is worse: advice from an unregistered practitioner or advice from DIBPs helpline? Or are they both about the same because they are often wrong and with no liability whatsoever.
RMAs (Registered Migration Agents) have complained that, everyday people call DIBPs 131 881 helpline with hope for some direction with their visa applications or status. Instead, they are misled with “wrong, incorrect, incomplete or half-baked immigration advice.”
The Migration Alliance has had complaints from RMAs that poorly trained DIBP officers are actually contradicting good advice from professionals in the migration industry.
Some RMAs have complained, “A lot of the time agents give advice and then their client goes to the DIBP and the counter-staff and contradict the information given and create problems for the client and their agent.”
“It is about time the public were informed of this hopeless failure of the DIBP,” says Liana Allan of the Migration Alliance. “DIBP officers answering immigration queries are not trained properly like RMAs. DIBP officers have no insurance and that quite frankly the DIBP 131 881 number should be referring the public to the Office of the MARA to find an agent if they have questions.”
Ms Allan says, “The DIBP are simply not trained and are effectively ruining people's lives because they do not have proven sound knowledge. Call a Registered Migration Agent if you need proper and accountable guidance. Your Visa issues are too important to be left to the hacks who have no interest in giving you the right advice.
“The fact the DIBP don't have a mandate for staff to refer the public to the Office of the MARA from the helpline is deeply concerning. Last year Migration Alliance questioned a DIBP Director in a consultation meeting on why the 131 881 staff don't refer callers to the Office of the MARA and the DIBP 'took it on notice' but admitted they don't" says Liana Allan.
Migration Alliance has a 'find an agent' function on its homepage. If the public want proper advice, go to the Office of the MARA and find an agent, or find one on this website.
Ask the DIBP at your own peril.
Comments
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Friday, 06 March 2015Wayne - because then they would be sued for providing incorrect, inconclusive and changing advice. They have a facebook page where people ask questions and that is scary enough!
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Sunday, 08 March 2015On the issue of information online, it is very general and unlikely to be incorrect because they are dorothy dixes... so that's safe. There's HUGE policy issues here, let along the legal implications of departmental staff giving advice (which is not to happen but it does by default) Some people do provide spot on, practical tips which help - I hear this all the time when I'm downstairs dropping something off or at Compliance when I'm there on a weekly basis sometimes wih Ministerial related BVEs for originally advice provided by irresponsible education agents, or departmental staff going back three-four years earlier...and first my feeling is to jump up and say 'excuse me, that's not entirely true - what about this...?' but I clearly can't - that is SOOOO frustrating, it hurts because you know that if they follow the advice it's not going to end well but I guess we have to have faith that people will find a way - that's not good enough... I'll continue to post about this until I'm blue in the face and we get something going to address this - even if it's a small start...
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Friday, 06 March 2015
Actually Wayne can you imagine how embarrassing it would be for the DIBP?
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Friday, 06 March 2015
I attended an online Q&A on the DIBP website last month on student visas as I thought it would be interesting to see the interaction. WRONG. 99% of the time, the answer was "please refer to our website or contact DIBP." They hold a Q&A to give advice...and then don't give any advice.
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Friday, 06 March 2015
I had a client who went to get an extension on a Bridging Visa to leave the country and they insisted that he stay and lodge a 457 from Australia. He had already used his schedule 3, which he notified them of and they still insisted, giving him a Bridging D. He lodged his 457 only to be told 4 weeks later that he had exhausted his Sch3 and that he had to withdraw the application and leave the country.
At least they refunded the fees, but a massive inconvenience and a subsequent 3 year ban. Needless to say he has no interest in coming back to Australia. -
Friday, 06 March 2015
If these stories aren't evidence enough then I don't know what is.
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Friday, 06 March 2015
One reason- DIBP has set up the help line to encourage people not to use Migration Agent (s).
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Friday, 06 March 2015
Thanks Liana. The Department undermines our occupation by suggesting that applicants do not need agents in a number of ways. This Help Line staffed by dangerously unpredictable DIBP staff is just one of those ways. The one I hate is the hopelessly meaningless average agent fees set up to force down the fees that agents charge.
Could you have a go at that next? -
Friday, 06 March 2015
When I called them and started to challenge their advice by providing reference to the Regulations, the staff member got really scared. I asked if they can access legislation, they said they do not have such access. I wonder how can they provide advice to the public?
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Friday, 06 March 2015
Has Migration Alliance thought of contacting the mainstream newspapers to let reporters know of the misinformation provided by the DIBP helpline and the fact that they are not referring potential applicants to the MARA? It would be great to have an article out there. It might also be useful to let it be known that a lot of the dodgy practice that goes on in Australia is a result of persons being represented by unregistered persons rather than registered migration agents and that the DIBP does little about unregistered persons lodging applications on behalf of applicants. I think it would be most beneficial for the industry and potential applicants for the public to have a better understanding of registered versus unregistered practice and the implications for a registered person should they give incorrect advice and the level of training (or lack of) received by DIBP staffers. What do you think?
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Friday, 06 March 2015
18 months ago, one of my clients was given the wrong advice at the counter which delayed her citizenship application by 12 months.
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Friday, 06 March 2015
After 10+ years of being a registered migration agent I can't even count the number of times that I've had a client question my (correct) advice because they had heard contradictory information from helpline or counter officers.
On another occasion, I had a counter officer show me a manual that they had been given for the purposes of training - they held it up and said something to the effect of - they expect us to know all of this. To me, that says, I really don't have a handle on all of this information. Ridiculous! -
Sunday, 08 March 2015
A client of ours could not have their student visa 'lodged' (oops) by their education institution on the basis that 'they could not lodge online', on the last possible day (Friday) before her visa expired the following day, even if they had sufficient time to do so a week earlier. She was directed to the department by 3 pm, which also gave incorrect advice and told her that she should go home because the application could not be lodged by now. Told her NOTHING about the consequences of not doing so AND of leaving AFTER her current visa expired (which I thought would have been their duty of care since after all, people is their business (!). She could have been told she could lodge an application by fax before the visa expires' - but didn't... (what fax anyway, right?) The visa expired the following day at 11:59pm... So it went from a irresponsible education agency to an indiferent departmental officer, to an inexperienced migration agent lodging a futile student visa about a week later and subsequently refused, to the MRT (refused again based on regulation), then to the Minister and after a year, referred back to client to lodge a partner visa because of a long term relationship commenced two years earlier... This is the stuff that most of my work is about - Yes, I agree with Chris that if the powers that be stuff up, it means more work for us, but we're dealing with people here, within an administrative framework that does not differentiate between a human being and an inanimate object... this is definitely poor form and can't continue... MA Executive welcomes case studies to help us take our advocacy to DIBP. Please keep them coming...
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Tuesday, 10 March 2015
To be fair, DIBP tries its best. Call centres being call centres have a high rate of staff attrition. All newcomers must be trained from the beginning. Wages are not great, conditions tough. Call centre staff have KPIs to meet. They are supposed to provide pre lodgement information with some post lodgement support. They do not provide advice, but they can provide options.
I was such an employee until recently. I often would tell a client that they should not be relying on advice in their particular situation from a clerk in a government dept and should be consulting an RMA and did provide MARA contact information. I don't know what others did. We had to provide information to clients in 5 minutes that an RMA would take days of research and consideration before they would offer advice. I do agree that the DIBP call centre staff role should be reconsidered and perhaps in consultation with MA and MIA.
On the other side of things, we had a lot of calls from clients who had been badly misled by RMAs. Many of DIBP's officers are very good in the work that they do and some are beginners. It's much the same as RMAs - the range of experience is wide. But I do think it's time for a revamp. They are always interested in improving the quality of their service. Why not write to them and suggest a meeting with reps from both bodies? I don't know how they would respond, but it should be attempted. -
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
'Badly misled by RMAs' is akin to a witch doctor saying to a brain surgeon that they don't think the remedy is a good one.
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Friday, 13 March 2015
Very glad Liana that this issue is highlighted by you guys. As a full-fledged RMA (I mean not a TTMARA one) I am practising since 2009 in NZ, sometimes it’s one hour phone call (in waiting) and after that receiving unhelpful advice and in some cases rude reply (i.e. you are an agent you should know this etc. and taking MARAN in a threatening style).
Immigration blog
Why doesn't DIBP use the available software technology and implement a Live Chat Text option to their website.
That could allow them to handle more inquiries and also a record of the conversation made available for DIBP and the inquirer.