A Proper Email Account And Email Management

Introduction

Check List Using The Regulations As A Template eg - Spouse Visa

Get Enough Sleep

Visa Application And Associated Costs

Preserving Records

Record Keeping And Management - How Long Do Documents Have To Be Kept?

Initial Requirements Regarding Accepting A Retainer

Failure Of Proper File Management Can Lead To Suspension As A Migration Agent

Interpreters

Confidentiality & Notifying The Client Of Complaint Procedure

Give Your Client A Copy Of Everything

Give Your Client The Bad News Immediately

Take Care While On Holidays

Clients & English

Check Special Requirements For Offshore Visas With The Embassy's Or Consulate's Website

Don't Accept Immigration's Assertion That Decisions Have Been Made Properly

Have No Fear Of Appeals

Never Advise Your Client To Make Life Changing Decisions Prior To The Grant Of A Visa & Trust Your Instincts

Before You Set The Fee With Your Client And Before You File A Visa Application

Oral Instructions

What Can Go Wrong If You Don't Record Your Mail Properly

Positioning And Pathways And Fees (Putting All One's Eggs In One Basket)

Email & Fax Communication & Errors With Credit Cards Emerge As Troubling Issues

Preparing A Client For Merit Review Hearings Or Interviews With DIBP

Accountants And Migration Law

Passport

Berenguel - Sometimes Time Of Application Criteria Can Be Met At Time Of Decision

Bare Faced Liars & The Fraudsters

Everyone's Doing It

Bridging Visas

Visas Remain Current Until Midnight

Immigration Closes At 4pm

Looking After Secondary Visa Holders In A Visa Cancellation Process

Applying As A Secondary Visa Applicant Onshore When The Primary Visa Applicant Is Offshore

Being Illegal

Essential Prerequisites For A Ministerial Discretion Application

Last Lunge Applications

State And Territory Sponsorship

Addresses

Believing The Client

Follow Up

Make Peace With The Tax Office

No Obligation On Immigration To Chase Up Information Or Documents From Migration Agents Or Lawyers Representing A Client

Errors In Visa Applications

Spouse Visas - Unexplained Large Deposits of Money

Managing No. 8503 On Tourist Visas

Medical Consent

Statutory Declarations

Merit Review

Tax Deductibility of Migration Advice

LEGENDcom

Dates On Documents And Names On Documents

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Take A Statement

Case Management Software

Work Rights

Student

Check All Past Visa Applications

Revealing Convictions

Visa Holders Being On Their Best Behaviour

Email Communication With Immigration - Delete All Strings

No Without Prejudice Conversations With Immigration

Accounts Managements

What Is A Secondary Visa?

Identify Australian Citizens Who Support An Applicant

Communications

Schedule 1 Criteria

Second Thing To Do On Starting A File - Download The Relevant Part Of The Law

First Thing To Do When Starting Any File - Identify Any 'Rights Destroying' Deadlines

Lodging Paper Applications

Social Media & Smart Phones

References

Disputes About Parentage And Children

Helping People Pass The English Tests

Managing Emails

What Is The Pomodoro Technique?

Immigration Telephones Client

When Is A Visa Application Made In Australia

Apply For A Visa In Australia

No Visa Application Is An Island

The Hammock Principle

Hotmail and gmail and the like are not professional email services. Having an email account with limited capacity is an error as it just leads to emails bouncing. Regularly pruning one’s received items is essential. Regularly ‘unsubscribing’ to commercial advertising is usually essential. Use the junk mail ‘block sender’ function ruthlessly. Regularly mark ‘immi.gov.au’ as safe domain. Check the junk mail folder regularly.

The writer carries no brief for Microsoft but a professional alternative to Gmail or Hotmail is office365 which is an online version of exchange: http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/business/

Regularly marking any email with the domain of ‘immi.gov.au’ as ‘Never block sender’s domain’ is essential (ie once a month).

KEEP AN EYE ON WHEN YOUR CLIENT TURNS 50, APPLYING FOR MORE THAN ONE VISA AT A TIME AND HAVE SOME LEEWAY IN MEETING CRITERIA, DON’T ASSUME EVERYTHING WILL GO PERFECTLY

Turning 50 can close some doors for those in conflict with Immigration. For example after turning 50 it becomes impossible to apply for any of the skilled visas for the first time. For the employer nomination visas after being aged 50 one has to come within the terms of exemptions.

So keep track of your client’s age – if the 50th milestone birthday is approaching, don’t let it pass without making a serious analysis of whether some other visa (ie a second visa) should be applied for before that birthday even if one has other visa applications in progress through the review and appeal processes.

Using a bridging visa B, a strategic visit overseas can be used to apply for an offshore visa before the 50 age limit chimes in. There is no prohibition against applying for more than one visa at a time. For example if a client is in a long queue for a skilled visa but has a sympathetic employer then one could apply for an offshore ENS visa.

Having two visa applications going at the same time can be a useful insurance. Generally a client should never wait until the last minute in applying for a visa – leave plenty of time because a rejection while holding a substantive visa is not a bar to re-applying (see s. 48 of the Migration Act).

But always be aware of s. 82 of the Migration Act:

Section 82. When visas cease to be in effect

(2) A substantive visa held by a non-citizen ceases to be in effect if another substantive visa (other than a special purpose visa) for the non-citizen comes into effect.

So if two visas are applied for and one is granted, make a conscious decision on whether to withdraw the other application or not because the grant of the second visa will extinguish the first visa. The writer had a case where the person had applied for a student visa onshore but did not really want to be a student. She then went offshore and while offshore applied for and was granted an ETA visa. On return her student visa was granted and it extinguished the ETA. Obviously with the 485 and 885 scenario mentioned above, obviously one does not withdraw the 885 application if the 485 visa is granted.

That migration law is about positioning is demonstrated by the MRT decision of Feng 0909192 [2010] MRTA 946 (26 March 2010). Here the student came to Australia on a tourist visa and it had the no further stay provision 8503 attached. He managed to convince Immigration to waive that condition so he could apply for a student visa onshore. But he then had to meet this hurdle contained in cl.571227 which states as follows:

If:

(a) the application was made in Australia; and

(b) the applicant is subject to assessment level 2, 3, 4 or 5; and

(c) at the time of application, the applicant met the requirements of clause 571.211:

(i) as the holder of a visa of one of the following classes:

(A) ….

(L) Short Stay (Visitor) (Class TR);

…

the applicant establishes exceptional reasons for the grant of a Subclass 571 visa.

It turned out that because of a family issue he had to return to China for a short visit while his student visa was being processed. Yet inexplicably, he did not re-apply for the student visa offshore so he did not have to meet the ‘exceptional reasons’ test. The writer suspects that there was a mind block about applying for the same visa twice, yet had the student done so he would now have a student visa. Instead the MRT could not find suitable ‘exceptional reasons’ to grant him the visa.

In another case, the migration agent back before the big changes to the skilled visas occurred on 1 September 2007 calculated that the client would achieve 120 points using the designated investment 5 points by investing $100,000 in a state authority.

The visa applicant’s wife was about to finish her degree in a few months which would have entitled her to the 5 bonus points as a spouse with a skilled occupation. The wife would have finished the degree a few weeks prior to 1 September 2007. The migration agent under some pressure from the client lodged the visa application before the wife finished her degree. In other words now everything had to go right for the visa application to get 120 because he now would not be eligible for the wife’s 5 points for nominating a skilled occupation.

What happened was that because of widespread fraud, all the states pulled out the designated investment scheme so the applicant lost 5 points. Had he waited until his wife was eligible for the 5 points as a skilled spouse, there would not have been a problem.

If possible always give your client some leeway, don’t assume everything will go perfectly.

Barbara DavidsonNovember 16, 2017

A Proper Email Account And Email Management

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