Clients & English
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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
Prepare Your Client For The Oath
Ideas For Chronologies For Client Files
Immigration Goes Into Hibernation On 30 June Each Year
Australia Closes Down Between Christmas & New Year
Have An Industrial Strength Office Set Up At The Office And At Home
What Is A Permanent Residence Visa?
Practice Together Or Practice In Groups
A Proper Email Account And Email Management
Undercharging And Undercutting On Fees
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
A migration agent does a client a disservice by not emphasising how important it is for the client to work on improving the client’s competency in English. Clients need to be told in no uncertain terms that a failure to achieve minimum competencies in English at worse will stop the client not meeting the criteria for the visa or at the very least create a situation where the client.
Migration agents at times feel they are showing sympathy for a client in not pressuring the client to improve his or her English. Clients need to be told the deadlines for achieving a standard of English. For example there are tens of thousands of subclass 457 visa holders present in Australia who would not have the English competency to score an IELTS test average band score of 5 based on the 4 test components of speaking, reading, writing and listening. Yet so many of them will be approaching the need to re-apply for a subclass 457 visa where they will face that English standard. Again so many of these 457 visa holders are often living in enclaves with their ethnic colleagues, working with colleagues who speak the same foreign language and socialise with people whose first language is not English. As a result the clients are losing the best advantage of being in Australia – which is the ability to learn English by speaking English to native English speakers.
Across and board at interviews with DIAC officers, in giving evidence before review tribunals and in giving evidence in a court, a person is always at a distinct disadvantage by not be able to communicate in English.
Migration agents therefore need to be very firm with clients, setting out a roadmap for conquering English. Visa holders (tradespeople in particular) need to be booked into English classes, encourage the clients to move out the safety of their ethnic enclaves and avoid non-English language media (DVD’s & satellite TV). Clients should sit the IELTS test well before their visa expires. If there are problems with the result, the client needs to get intensive specialist tutoring, perhaps even take leave from work and do a full time ELICOS course for a month.
Students seeking a progression to permanent residence should not be ignored. The writer has come across too many students who have failed to score 6 in each of the 4 components in the IELTS at the end of their course. This can only be caused by poor strategy in planning the transition to permanent residence.
So being soft on the client with English could lead to a very hard result.