migration agents ceased trading................... what to do now?

[Guest purplewitch]

Hi All

Just had a letter today from our agents to say they have ceased trading

 

They have sent us a form (956) to send off to ensure we get all correspondence sent to us.

 

No information exactly where to send it to or what I need to do for the next stages (visa application has been lodged)

 

I kind of feel like just giving up now, we have been gong through this for over 2 years, cant sell the house and have faced knock back after knock back. Ideally I would just like my money back and to restart my life here but dont think thats likely is it?

 

Any advice anyone?

[Ozzieland]

Hi All

Just had a letter today from our agents to say they have ceased trading

 

They have sent us a form (956) to send off to ensure we get all correspondence sent to us.

 

No information exactly where to send it to or what I need to do for the next stages (visa application has been lodged)

 

I kind of feel like just giving up now, we have been gong through this for over 2 years, cant sell the house and have faced knock back after knock back. Ideally I would just like my money back and to restart my life here but dont think thats likely is it?

 

Any advice anyone?

 

Hi

 

I don't know much of what can be done but if your agent was a MARA agent, there is a possibility of something positive. Have you tried asking them for the money / fees you have paid them to be refunded since they have left you stranded ?

[Guest pearly shower]

i know how that feels,started this process over 3 yrs ago, we lost all our money.were still no further on now. now we cant even apply for a visa as my oh has now not worked for 12 out of the last 24 months,just like u we had knock after knock after knock.we have given up for the moment but i have to say it took a heavy toll on our relationship and if i had the chance to do it again i think id give it a miss.the dream of australia will always be there and i still continue to read these sites my husband thinks im obessed!!! very best of luck with your application i really hope u get there.:hug:

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi All

Just had a letter today from our agents to say they have ceased trading

 

They have sent us a form (956) to send off to ensure we get all correspondence sent to us.

 

No information exactly where to send it to or what I need to do for the next stages (visa application has been lodged)

 

I kind of feel like just giving up now, we have been gong through this for over 2 years, cant sell the house and have faced knock back after knock back. Ideally I would just like my money back and to restart my life here but dont think thats likely is it?

 

Any advice anyone?

 

Hi Purplewitch

 

I am so very sorry to read about this development today. There is going to be a lot more of it about in the next few months, regrettably. A lot of migration agents run small businesses that are not sufficiently well capitalised to withstand the loss of fee income that the Minister's antics have been causing for the last year or so. Many more will cease trading during the next year or so. Your case is merely the first one that I have heard about during 2010.

 

You started a thread in Feb 2010 that describes the gist of the facts in your own case. The thread is here:

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/79329-state-sponsorship-versus-family-sponsorship.html#post688241

 

Did you apply for State sponsorship in the end? If so, did you get it? I ask because I want to get an idea of the likely time-scale ahead of you, please.

 

There is no urgency to do anything straightaway. I'd suggest that you take a deep breath and think about what you want to do before you start completing any forms for the moment. The probability is very high that the ASPC won't do anything about your application for at least another 4-6 months anyway and probably not even then, so there is no screaming urgency to tell them anything at this stage.

 

I think the first thing you need to consider is the situation for your 17 year old son. When does he turn 18 please and what is he doing at the moment? The issue with him is that once his 18th birthday has passed, DIAC will assume that he is no longer dependent on you unless you convince them that he is still dependent on you. The easy way to do this is to ensure that your son remains in full-time education for the foreseeable future.

 

Which is very easy to say! With some kids it would be a lot easier to kick a dead whale uphill than it would be to convince the youngster to go to college or whatever and to stay there until you say that he can leave!

 

I asked DIAC about this at a meeting with them in London in November 2009. Their attitude was that somebody of 18 or over is an adult and therefore it is up to the young adult to decide what to do with his/her life. DIAC will not make any attempt to interfere with the young person's own decisions, so if it turns out that s/he is not still dependent on you by the time that DIAC eventually process the visa application, an adult, independent child will not be included in your own visa and that will be that as far as DIAC are concerned.

 

How does the land lie with your son, do you think? Take your time to think this over and to discuss the situation with your son, I suggest. There is no need for anybody to make any sort of instant decision about this. Would you and your OH still consider moving to Australia yourselves if it turns out that you cannot take your son with you?

 

The next thing to consider is that you seem to have nominated Hairdresser as your occupation even though you do not seem to have been a Hairdresser for a while at least because you have been a Welfare Worker instead. These two occupations are on the Minister's list of pet hates in terms of people moving to Australia. The Minister is whingeing that the pipeline of applications for GSM visas (the type you have applied for) is dominated by an imbalance. So many people have nominated such a narrow range of occupations in their visa applications that it is skewing the balance and mix of the GSM visa programme according to the Minister. Two of the occupations that are causing this imbalance ate Hairdresser and Welfare Worker according to DIAC.

 

The Australian Government is completely unable to devise an elegant way of dealing with this GSM problem, it would appear. Therefore the Minister and his lackeys have devised a crude, blunt, inelegant cosh called the Migration Amendement (Visa Capping) Bill 2010. If this Bill is enacted into Law, then the effect is that it would give the Minister the power to "Cap & Terminate" your visa application suddenly. In that event, the Bill says that he would eventually get around to offering you an interest free refund of the $2,000 odd AUD visa application charge that you paid to DIAC at the time you submitted your visa application in early 2009. However he would not offer to reimburse you for any of the other expenses that you have incurred (eg TRA fee, IELTS fee, migration agents fees and so forth.) So you would lose a substantial amount of money if the Minister decides to Cap & Kill your visa application simply because he doesn't approve of the idea if too many Hairdressers or Welfare Workers being able to move to Australia.

 

As yet, nobody knows whether this inquitous new Bill will become a part of Aussie law. The Minister seems to have tried to slide the thing under Parliament's door quickly and quietly at the end of May 2010. The Aussie Senate have proven to be too beady for him. They spotted this Bill and have opened a Public Inquiry to see what people think about the idea:

 

Parliament of Australia: Senate: Committees: Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee: Migration Amendment (Visa Capping) Bill 2010 [Provisions]: Submissions Received

 

600 of the Submissions to the Inquiry have been published so far, though they tend to add a few more to the pile every couple of days. Support for the Bill has been feeble, heavily-qualified and unconvincing in my opinion, plus only 3 or 4 people/organisations have said anything to support the Government's proposals. Opposition to the Bill has been vehement, enormous, coherent and some of it is very learned.

 

However the Aussie Parliament could still turn this Bill into Law, regardless of whether or not thousands of people disapprove of it. The Inquiry Committee have been asked to produce a Report into the whole thing. They are expected to table the Report in Parliament on 11th August 2010. Lots of things could happen to upset the timing (eg a General Election in Australia in August) so it is far too soon to say what would actually happen.

 

The money that you have paid to your migration agent has gone up the swanee. The contract for services usually says that the agent can help himself to the remainder of the fees received from you at the time when the visa application is submitted, so you can be certain that the agent has snaffled all of your money and the agent might well not be any too solvent, so your chances of recovering any money from the agent are - realistically - zero unfortunately, unless you paid the agent by credit card? If you paid by credit card then you may be able to recover some or all of your money from the credit card company.

 

One of the decisions facing you now is whether or not to appoint another migration agent or whether to paddle your own canoe with your visa application from now on. Any other agent would charge you something for taking the matter over but the good agents would not overcharge you. I think that you need to decide whether you want to spend some more money to get somebody else to look after you or whether to go it alone.

 

If you decide to go it alone, you would have to do the remaining work by yourself and at your own risk. That said, it does not sound as if there is a huge amount left to do. Also masses of visa applicants never use agents and do the whole process by themselves. Plenty of Poms in Oz members know how to do it and I am certain that you would find no shortage of willing helpers on here, who would not charge you anything for their help.

 

So I suggest that you bear all the above in mind whilst you deliberate and decide what to do. If you are likely to appoint another agent then there is no great urgency for you to contact the ASPC with Form 956. The new agent would sort it out for you in due course.

 

If you decide to take control of the whole thing yourself then DIAC will require two forms from you, being Form 956 and Form 1193:

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/956.pdf

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1193.pdf

 

The second Form is needed in order to authorise DIAC to communicate with you by e-mail. Form 956 is very badly designed. When a client decides to take over the matter him or herself, Form 956 forgets to prompt the client about whether or not DIAC are allowed to use e-mail, hence the need for Form 1193 as well.

 

If you complete the forms by yourself, the next query is how to send the forms to DIAC? Ideally, you would complete the forms, scan them into a computer using a colour scanner and save the scanned copies, preferably as PDF files in order to compress them. You might not have these facilities at home but it sounds like you probably do have all of them at work?

 

You could simply send the completed documents to DIAC by post:

 

General Skilled Migration Processing Centres

 

If you prefer to use e-mail then please follow DIAC's instructions:

 

Contact Us - Department of Immigration and Citizenship

 

Attaching Documents to a General Skilled Migration Visa Application

 

Save the scanned documents as one of the types in the sheet of hieroglyphics above (but PDF is the one that most people have heard of etc!)

 

You can then attach the documents to an ordinary e-mail and send it to adelaide.gsm.documents@immi.gov.au as shown on the link below:

 

General Skilled Migration Enquiry Forms - Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs

 

Shout if you get stuck and somebody on here will help, I promise.

 

In the meantime, please could you send me a PM or an e-mail sending me the name and the website link for the agents who have ceased trading? One of the things I need to do is to find out how many other clients are likely to have been affected and to make sure that all of you are looked after properly, which your agents have not bothered to do, apparently. If you click on my user name to the left of this post, a drop down menu will appear and you can PM or e-mail me as you prefer.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Jamie Smith]

In the meantime, please could you send me a PM or an e-mail sending me the name and the website link for the agents who have ceased trading? If you click on my user name to the left of this post, a drop down menu will appear and you can PM or e-mail me as you prefer.

 

If possible, I too would like a PM or email with the agent business name and or personal name. There might be some stuff we can do here in Aus to assist you. email is jamie [AT] hireamigrant [dot] com or jamie [AT] statesponsorship [DOT] com [DOT] au.

 

Thanks

[Guest littlewing]

Sorry to hear about your agents. It is very tough out there for all kinds of business' at the moment. I know many a person who has been left hanging like you and I feel for all of you.

 

Please do not give up on your application. All is not lost, you just need to inform the DIAC that you wish to receive all correspondence regarding your application.

 

It's very easy, do not give up...you're almost there. You have already had two offers of assistance above, if you don't come right, just pop me a message but I am almost sure you have already been assisted.

 

Best of luck. Hang in there.