Managing Emails
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
Try this for a technique. Only look at and open emails at a routine time of the day, better later in the day, like 3pm or 4pm. Emails can be a huge distraction. Rarely does an email require an immediate response.
Look at and deal with an email only once. Even finding an email again can take time. Cull back the emails you receive to the bear minimum. If a stream of emails is not essential to your practice or business – unsubscribe.
Be ruthless in deleting emails that are unnecessary.
Also always change the subject line when responding to an email to reflect what the response is about, much easier to deal with the sequence of emails if the subject line refers to what the email is about.
Delete unnecessary strings in the reply, strings can contain damaging and information which may be misconstrued.
Following on from what Mark Leibler wrote about sleeping on a decision, take some care in firing back an aggressive reply to an email. In the pre-digital age, it took time to type up a letter, proof read it and post it or fax it. In that time our anger or first reaction may have calmed. Think about taking time before replying with some sharpness to an email.
Students & evidence of enrolment
When returning from a visit away from Australia, students need to have evidence of their enrolment with in their hand luggage. A student was once returning from South Korea and did not have this evidence with her. Immigration contacted her college and through some mixup the staff did not identify as a student and she was turn around at the airport!
The evidence of enrolment needs to be in original format and have no ambiguities.
Refugees
From a practical point of view, there is some risk in refugees returning to the country from which they claim persecution prior to being granted Australian citizenship (even if it is for a holiday). If there are any visa or migration issues later, having a history of returning to the country of origin inevitably devalues the original refugee status. Furthermore it gives a client an aura of contrivance which will infect other considerations. Afterall a protection visa is meant to be about a person who fears persecution in the country of origin. As far as relatives are concerned best to try and meet up in a third country. For example Malaysia has an easy pathway for visitors who are Muslim and Bali is a wonderful place.