Save Time and Money, Avoid Mistakes

As our key staff have been consulting to the migration industry since 1998, we have been impressed on many occasions at the skills of many migration agents who can navigate the maze of policy, interpretation and application for the many different visas. A good agent can bring together more than one visa into a process that creates a favourable result in a difficult situation, often drawing off previous experience and legally working around what might seem to be fixed obstacles.

One good indicator of a skilled professional is where someone does not immediately give you a definitive answer to a tricky question. Policy and interpretation often change, so a professional agent will always update themselves on current case law and decisions before offering final advice.

The best way to receive this advice is in writing, not via a free verbal or online opinion. A written opinion is a matter of record, and an agent who is confident of their knowledge will happily provide this in writing.

As an employer or migrant you may have the time and manpower to research and organise job vacancies or workers, but you may not have the expertise to handle the somewhat complicated path towards securing the rights to sponsor or be granted a visa.

There are also benefits and drawbacks with different visas and sponsorship requirements, each of which will have differing impacts on a business or career path, depending on which option you choose. For example, some visas require sponsorship from an employer in a regional location, and some occupations only attract points towards the points test in certain regions.

Each option should be properly analysed so that the employer and candidate both have full information and can make informed decisions. Recognising that one person may need to educate the other, it pays to know enough to be able to lead the discussion into other options.

If you are uncertain about making too many concessions, or not enough of the right ones, then we suggest you take professional advice. A few dollars spent now may mean that a growing business is permitted to sponsor and hire skilled staff from overseas, and a skilled worker becomes available for employment earlier than expected.

Sorting all this out takes a bit of effort, with lots of objective analysis and some clever thinking.

Many migration consultants are very well experienced in sorting out these issues for employers and migrants. For a few hundred dollars worth of advice, either person may get directed towards another strategy that reduces risk and increases benefits for everyone.

These links take you to consultants who are either:

1. Registered Migration Agents (RMA) in Australia and Overseas (legally required to do a good job!), and/or
2. Unregistered with MARA but members of the Migration Institute of Australia (with ethical obligations and able to be investigated by the MIA). Many RMAs are also active members of the MIA.

Australian employers will probably deal with a locally registered agent. If the employer is based in Australia, any person offering visa and sponsorship advice to the sponsoring employer or migrant must be a registered migration agent. To avoid frustration later, we suggest that employers ask the candidates who they are using as a migration agent.

At the least they should be members of the MIA or accredited in their own country. This should give employers peace of mind in knowing that any subsequent third step (candidate applies for a visa) is likely to succeed. The cost and effort an employer puts into preparing their business for assessment by DIAC or accepting costs and obligations of sponsorship should not be wasted on a candidate who should not be applying for a visa.

We urge against dealing with unregistered (read, illegal) agents in Australia or individuals who have an experience base of one case (their own!) and are trying to make money. As migration is a life changing and expensive event for many people and a business is too valuable to be put at unnecessary risk, it makes sense to avoid taking advice from people who are not trained in the industry or held accountable to it.

For employers who have no previous contact with migration agents, choosing one as a supplier to the business can be a challenge, as making mistakes may not only cost the business money but also deprive them of a good employee.

And for the migrant, the internet is full of places that purport to offer good solid advice. Some are truly useful, others hold outdated information or only anecdotal advice from people who might forget to include some key details. Although several online forums are full of genuine and well meaning people who have useful information, many forum members appear to have selective memories or omit critical data that they decided was not worth repeating. Opinions given online can only reflect that person’s experience and might not be at all relevant to other people. So the challenge is what and who to believe.

Furthermore, many forum members are already resident in Australia, which should legally limit their advice to reporting on just their own experience. The matter of legal entitlement to consult and offer migration advice doesn’t seem to have occurred to them! As migration policy and interpretation can and does shift, it is important that whoever you choose to work with has:

• access to current legislation and decisions;
• a commitment to ongoing education (CPD);
• membership of an organisation that demands compliance with a set of professional standards;
• a track record of successfully handling similar cases;
• a willingness to offer a service guarantee or refund.

Avoid untrained migration “consultants” who know very little about migration other than how to handle their own case, charge a fee and confuse the client into thinking they know what they are doing.

What to do?

The following is a list of registered migration agents (RMAs) that we have worked with or encountered at industry events, agents who we are comfortable putting forward to employers and migrants. Please note although many of these agents may have an ongoing contract with us, others are completely independent.

This provides you with a wide choice of future service provider, and is our way of supporting our clients without disclosing a tight list of who we actually work with.

This site is not intended for use by either migrants or sponsors who are directly sponsoring a future employe. It is a condition of use of this site that all users acknowledge that they are not seeking migration advice for themselves as migrant or to act as sponsor of a future worker. For full legal entitlement and disclaimer please click here (c) Hire A Migrant Pty Ltd ACN 124 164 138 unless attributed.

The Australian Government is now in caretaker mode ahead of the national election scheduled for August 21. The timing is very unfortunate as a long series of major changes to immigration policy are still unfinished, leaving many thousands of people in a state of great uncertainty.

Although it is possible that State Governments may be able to submit their new lists of State Sponsored occupations for Ministerial approval, it is unclear whether the Minister still has the ability to authorise their implementation at least until a new Government is formed. Similarly, other unwelcome legislation for capping and ceasing certain visa categories is also unable to progress. Another choke point is that quotas for certain occupations may also be implemented at State and Federal levels soon after the election.

Or not! One major party view is that smaller employers should find it easier to become a sponsor, which would enable many more job applicants through. Applicants affected by change and uncertainty may still consider applying for 457 permits until their visa pathway for permanent residency is made clear. Even without the election, Immigration is in a bit of a mess and it will probably be October before it’s mostly cleared up.