Email & Fax Communication & Errors With Credit Cards Emerge As Troubling Issues
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
As will be seen below emails from Immigration not being received by Migration Agents can be a serious problem. The writer has a recent case where the agent only learnt months later that a student visa application had been refused. The migration agent says he regularly checks his junk mail to make sure DIBP email has not spilled in that inbox. If you haven’t yet done so make sure you mark ‘immi.gov.au’ as a ‘safe sender’.
The writer has regular disputes with Immigration over whether the email was actually sent (ie left Immigration’s computer).
The initial plan was to obtain a certificate from the migration agent’s Internet Service Provider (ISP), stating that the email had never made it into the agent’s inbox, but in this case the ISP only kept records for one month. Hence it may be useful only to have an ISP which keeps email records for much longer than a month – check this with your ISP.
The mere fact that the delegate can produce a printout of an email which was purportedly sent, is not conclusive proof that the email was actually emitted out of the Immigration computer system.
We have asked Immigration to provide an engineering certificate that the email was despatched from Immigration’s computer system and we are awaiting an answer. There is also provision under s. 271 (Proof of certain matters) of the Migration Act for an Immigration officer to issue a certificate. The relevant part in s. 271(1)(l) [ie subparagraph ‘l’ as in London] states:
(l) a certificate signed by an officer stating whether or not a specified computer program was functioning correctly:
(i) at a specified time or during a specified period; and
(ii) in relation to specified outcomes from the operation of that program under an arrangement made under subsection 495A(1);
is prima facie evidence of the matters stated in the certificate.
Note: Functioning correctly is defined in subsection (5).
(5) For the purposes of paragraph 271(1)(l), a computer program is functioning correctly if:
- outcomes from its operation comply with this Act and the regulations; and
- those outcomes would be valid if they were made by the Minister otherwise than by the operation of the computer program.
Nevertheless, all of this is a worrying issue because of ss. 494B, 494C & 494D. It is worth re-visiting those provisions now.
All sorts of things can go wrong in the communication pathway and the risk of any failure is carried by the client. Letters still go astray, emails can disappear into cyber space, a fax may be chewed by a fax machine unbeknown to a migration agent.
So what to do about this. One fail safe method is to simply email Immigration every 20 days in each file noting that no communication of a decision has been received and that it is therefore assumed no decision has been made. But this hardly practical when decisions can take well over a year after visa application. However one has to use one’s instincts. If a decision ought to have been received by a certain time then it would be prudent to inquire.
Sending material by fax can be problematical at the receiving end. Regularly the writer is aware of cases where even though the sender has proof of a fax being sent, the recipient denies this. On investigation it usually emerges that somehow when the fax was printed out is got mixed up with other faxes and was incorrectly filed. The safest course is to follow up on whether the fax was received and make a note of that.