Visa Holders Being On Their Best Behaviour
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
All visa holders need to be aware that they are present in Australia as our guests. Temporary visa holders in particular need to be aware that their behaviour in Australia may have some bearing on their progression to permanent residence.
It is surprising how often a client will harm his or her chances of remaining in Australia by some unnecessary act of stupidity. Alcohol drives some bad behaviour, and manifests in drunk driving offences and/or public order offences (like assaulting police!). In spouse cases sexual conduct outside the relationship needs to be restrained. Being on a temporary spouse visa is not the time to engage in ‘extra marital affairs’ or imprudent sexual conduct.
Temporary visa holders need to be warned that they are on a sort of ‘probation’ while in Australia and that they may have to account for any bad behaviour while holding a temporary visa. The writer repeats the mantra about the importance of the psychology of advocacy regularly. A client with any criminal convictions even if there is no imprisonment gives a file a negative aura.
Those holding permanent residence also need to be aware that until they get citizenship they are similarly guests of Australia albeit with more rights than a temporary visa holder.
Character issues are discussed in detail in another paper but a one year jail term (suspended or otherwise) will inevitably raise visa cancellation issues.
Clients therefore need to be warned of the need to be on their best behaviour on temporary visas and on permanent residence visas to be similarly of good standing and also hasten to citizenship.
Temporary visa holders need to be aware of this provision which prescribes this factor as a ground for cancelling a visa under s 116(g) :–
After paragraph 2.43(1)(o)
Insert:
(oa) in the case of the holder of a temporary visa (other than a Subclass 050 (Bridging (General)) visa, a Subclass 051 (Bridging (Protection Visa Applicant)) visa or a Subclass 444 (Special Category) visa)—that the Minister is satisfied that the holder has been convicted of an offence against a law of the Commonwealth, a State or Territory (whether or not the holder held the visa at the time of the conviction and regardless of the penalty imposed (if any));
This was made law by the Migration Amendment (2014 Measures No 2) Regulation 2014, Select Legislative Instrument No. 199, 2014, dated 11 December 2014 coming into effect on 12 December 2014. Also important is the operation provision which states :
3803
(2) The amendments of these Regulations made by items 4 to 12 and 16 to 21 of Schedule 3 to the Migration Amendment (2014 Measures No. 2) Regulation 2014 apply in relation to a decision to grant or not to grant a visa, or to cancel a visa, made on or after the commencement of the items.
What this means is that anyone who has been convicted of an offence and holds a temporary visa MAY have his or her visa cancelled! This would even include a drunk-driving offence or any traffic offence conviction done by a court (like driving without due care and attention).
A corollary issue is ostentatious displays of wealth or opulence. A client in one reported case referred to his obligations to maintain lease payments on a Ferrari as one ground of hardship for a visa cancellation! Here the politics of envy are hard at work and subconscious prejudices are hard to overcome. Australia is certainly a free country and there is nothing unlawful about owning a Ferrari but such displays do not attract sympathy when lineball decisions are at stake.
The take home message that clients on temporary visas need to be advised that until they obtain permanent residence all their behaviour can come under scrutiny for the purpose of assessing whether they have a continued right to stay in Australia. It is really only until one becomes an Australia citizen through lawful means that one can be truly free of the clutches of Immigration.
Young people are particularly vulnerable to impulsive bad behaviour. The writer had a case of a young person who was carrying a knife while out and about socially. Inevitably the young man got into a fight and used his knife causing unlawful wounding. The police were called and the boy was convicted of unlawful wounding. Counselling of young people about possible risky and criminal behaviour is part of the role of migration advisors.