Gerrymoo2000 Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 I have applied for my visa through a company called The immigration advisory service. For the last few months I've hade no communications from them and the web site is no longer available (worrying I know) I've paid them over £3k:ssign1:........... Just wanted to know if anybody else was in the same situation and where do I go from here. I have sent all my trade certificates and I was waiting for my skills assessment. any advice would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MancGeek Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 I have applied for my visa through a company called The immigration advisory service. For the last few months I've hade no communications from them and the web site is no longer available (worrying I know) I've paid them over £3k:ssign1:........... Just wanted to know if anybody else was in the same situation and where do I go from here. I have sent all my trade certificates and I was waiting for my skills assessment.any advice would be greatly appreciated. Not looking good. Website is down, whois on the website is screened by privacy, facebook page removed, twitter account not updated since 2013. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Do you know if they were registered agents? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 The only trace I can find of a company with that name now, refers to a company that went bust in 2011, presumably you had dealings more recently than that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerrymoo2000 Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 They looked legit I have a contract and I spoke with several of the staff! I don't think they were a registered agent. The names Alistair and Fiona Markam were the people I was dealing with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 The only trace I can find of a company with that name now, refers to a company that went bust in 2011, presumably you had dealings more recently than that! I was about to say the same. Not sure if any of the posters get a resolution but might be worth finding the threads and sending a PM to the original poster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerrymoo2000 Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 I dealt with them starting in January 2014, the immigration advisory service is a different company to "The immigration advisory service" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerrymoo2000 Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 Gutted :mad: not the word! Must be others in the same situation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 I dealt with them starting in January 2014, the immigration advisory service is a different company to "The immigration advisory service" Those are the same words. :wacko: So it is very hard to look around. Is that the precise name of the company you used? What about the website url, can you tell us what you are using, so that we can eliminate others? When did you last hear from them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 http://www.perthpoms.com/forum/welcome-perth/17853-just-started-emigration-process-2.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerrymoo2000 Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 Sorry http://theimmigrationadvisoryservice.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Sorry http://theimmigrationadvisoryservice.com/ Mmm yes I did see that one, but it just times out. Even when a migration agency goes bust, as one or two have done that I know of, they are supposed to hand their clients off to another agent. I don't know that these have gone bust, but even so someone should have been in touch. When did you last hear from them? Perhaps the thing to do is track down this Markham chap through his other businesses and try to extract answers that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MancGeek Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Depending on whether the payments were made to a LTD company (a lot of their companies are shell companies backed up by a holding company, but some of them appear to be sole trader setups) it may be possible to bring small claims against the directors as individuals (this is important, as if a claim is brought against a liquidated LTD company the directors won't be held responsible unless it can be proved they were negligent) and then get baliffs instructed to recover the debt. It's a long shot though. Best option is for anyone affected to make a complaint against the directors via companies house and let them investigate: https://www.gov.uk/company-director-disqualification Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussiegirl Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Seriously hope you get a nice outcome from this and the money can get recovered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonSmile Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 it appears their google+ page is up and running https://plus.google.com/+Theimmigrationadvisoryservice/posts it has a different contact number.. [TABLE=class: Mlb] [TR] [TD=class: MAa]Phone[/TD] [TD=class: tel]+44 (0) 203 282 7137 [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonSmile Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 and it would appear these people have the same phone number and website design... http://electricianaustralia.co.uk/contact-details/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raul Senise Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Until the Australian Government does something to address the issue of overseas operators this type of thing will continue to happen. Currently only people operating in Australia must be Registered to give Australian migration advice. Anyone operating overseas can do and say whatever they want with impunity. They do not even need to be trained or have any knowledge of the Migration process. This is a sad case and unfortunately all too common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonSmile Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 and while I was looking.. http://www.teachingaustralia.co.uk/contact/ who are registered MIRA agents.. But it appears that they are actually this bunch.. http://www.violetpopsiclemedia.com and in case you want to see their current brands/ companies ... http://www.violetpopsiclemedia.com/brands/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 I wonder if it's worth taking out a group action? ETA - also reporting to the police as it's theft/fraud .... or even one of the TV programmes who expose people like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerrymoo2000 Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 Thanks for all the information folks a great help, I'm looking for some legal advice now before I go any further. I've worked to bloody hard for £3k for some rat to walk away with it:no: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemesis Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 and while I was looking.. http://www.teachingaustralia.co.uk/contact/ who are registered MIRA agents.. But it appears that they are actually this bunch.. http://www.violetpopsiclemedia.com and in case you want to see their current brands/ companies ... http://www.violetpopsiclemedia.com/brands/ A company can't be a MARA agent, only individuals can register, not companies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinkla Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Until the Australian Government does something to address the issue of overseas operators this type of thing will continue to happen. Currently only people operating in Australia must be Registered to give Australian migration advice. It is difficult to see what the Australian Government can do; they don't have jurisdiction outside Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raul Senise Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 It is difficult to see what the Australian Government can do; they don't have jurisdiction outside Australia. They do have jurisdiction over who they will accept visa applications from. Other countries have been able to address this issue. The current situation is simply untenable. An overseas operator can make any unfounded claims they wish, be completely untrained in Migration, have no trust account operation, no indemnity insurance, no access to the Migration Regulations, yet the Immigration Department will accept an application from them, irrespective of the quality of the work or their record. A Registered Migration Agent by comparison must maintain yearly registration, be trained in Australian Migration, undertake regular continuing development courses, operate under a code of conduct, operate a trust account, have access to the Migration Regulations, Act and Policy, maintain professional indemnity insurance, comply to strict advertising standards, is liable to auditing by the MARA, etc, etc, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raul Senise Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 and while I was looking.. http://www.teachingaustralia.co.uk/contact/ who are registered MIRA agents.. Really? Have you confirmed this by searching the MARA website? https://www.mara.gov.au/search-the-register-of-migration-agents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinkla Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 But you couldn't enforce any kind of registration for agents overseas. You couldn't prosecute malfeasance; the worst you could do is take away their accreditation - but would be powerless to do very much if the company continued to claim to be accredited. The world is so large, it couldn't be policed and bad guys would just locate their operation in a country that would not enforce any complaints that the Australian Government might make. As for not accepting applications from overseas agents - how would that be enforced? The applicants would have signed the form and given the agent's address as the correspondence address. The Australian Government would never know that the application did not come directly from the applicant. It's really just a case of caveat emptor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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