Follow Up
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
Whilst the obligations pursuant to a contract may be complete once the visa is granted, a wise migration advisor will not regard his or her job as finished just because the visa is granted. Obviously the client ought to be paying a fee for further advice but there are circumstances where the advisor should be following up on pathway issues for a client. The writer had the example of a person who held a subclass 487 visa but failed to apply for the subclass 887 (Skilled — Regional) visa while still holding the 487 visa. The Schedule 1 criteria for the subclass 887 visa found in Item 1136(7) Skilled (Residence) (Class VB) states:
(a) the applicant must be the holder of…:
(iv) a Subclass 487 (Skilled — Regional Sponsored) visa;
The visa holder simply forgot what date his visa expired and realised he was unlawful a couple of weeks after the subclass 487 visa had expired!
If the migration advisor had a bring up system recording when his client’s 487 expired then probably the client would have come to him or her for the processing of the subclass 887 visa application. But now the client is in a difficult position and the advice given was to leave Australia within that 28 period and look at coming back on a business ETA visa and see if he could then get a subclass 457 sponsor.
In all cases where the client is granted a temporary visa, the migration advisor ought to follow up on the pathway to permanent residence.
Another case involved a person doing the transition from the subclass 160 series temporary business visa to the Permanent Residence 890 series business visas. A requirement of the transition is that the applicant had spent one year in the two years up to the date of the application physically present in Australia.
The migration agent who assisted the client to obtain the 160 series visa did not follow up to advise the client on the one in year in two residence requirement. This obviously required some planning and some effort to ensure that the residence requirement was met. The advisor ought to have requested that the client attend for advice (on a fee paying basis of course) to plan and audit the 160 series visa holder’s transition to permanent residence. Temporary business visa applicants need to be very careful about changing company structures in the transition from temporary residence to permanent residence.
Similarly for both the subclass 890 series (in transition from the 160 series visas) and the Subclass 888 Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent)in the Business Innovation stream (in transition from the 188 visa), there is a 2 year rule about operating a business in these terms :
888.222
(1) The applicant (the current applicant):
(a) had an ownership interest in at least one actively operating main business in Australia during the 2 years immediately before the application was made; and
(b) continues to have the ownership interest in the actively operating main business.
People sometimes sell businesses because of loss making or do other things which may end up falling foul of this provision by closing a business down within the two years before the subclass 888 visa is lodged. The ‘actively operating’ may cause a problem in such circumstances.
Whenever one is acting for a client moving from a temporary visa to a permanent residence visa the client should be expected to pay for advice on proper transition planning and the agent ought to advise the client accordingly. Proper transition planning and advice is essential
Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up!!!
Repetitious as this is, this follow up mantra is one of the take home messages of this paper.
Among the myriad of difficult cases the writer deals with is this one. The migration agent seemed to have lost contact with the client when Immigration requested the health check be done. Thus the deadline to do the health check ran out and Immigration therefore refused a skilled visa application when all other criteria had been met!
This is frankly unforgiveable. The agent should have done everything humanly possible to track down the client. (obviously the client should be charged a fee for the work required to track him or her down). And got extensions on the deadline for the medical examination.
There is also a failure of the agent to instruct the client, in no uncertain terms, that the client has to make sure he or she tells the agent of his or her movements at all times.