Immigration Refugees and Forced Migration †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Immigration Refugees and Forced Migration. Answer: Introduction: The aim of this letter is to ensure that you are provided with sufficient knowledge about how to deal with clients when providing migration assistance. This letter of advice focuses on ethical accounting and procedural expectations on the migration agents. You are going to provide immigration assistance to Wood Engineering on behalf of Josephine who wishes to be issued with a Temporary Skilled Work Subclass 457 visa. The first and foremost think which a migration agent must have knowledge about that as soon as they are registered under the Migration Agent Registration Authority they are obligated to follow the rules laid down by the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) and the Migration Regulations 1998. The MA is the primary legislation which provides rules for visa application and the migration process in Australia. The MA further establishes Migration Regulations 1998 dealing more specifically with migration agents. The migration agents have a legal duty to abide by code of conduct set through SCHEDULE 2 of the MR. the establishment of the code is provided through s 314 of the Act[1]. The legal obligation of compliance with the code of conduct is also established through the section. The code provides guidelines which the agents must use while discharging their duties. As provided by part 1.8 of the code the compliance with the code does not displace any other liability which may be imposed on the agents through the provisions of the Criminal Code Act 1995, Trade Practices Act 1974 and Crimes Act 1914 for unregistered practices and misleading statements[2]. There are several procedures which must be complied by a migration agent when it comes to providing immigration assistance. Firstly there must be an agreement between the client and the agents in relation to what services are to be provided by the agent and the fees charged by them. All registered migration agents in Australia have the duty to inform the department through Form 956 that they are about to provide immigration assistance to a client according to the requirements under section 312 of the Act[3]. The notification has to be provided when a written authorization of the client is obtained to act on behalf of him after they reach an agreement. Another important procedural requirement which you should be aware about is the statement of services. The statement is a written undertaking which has to be provided by an agent to the client mandatorily in accordance with Section 313 of the Act. The statement consists of description about each and every service which would be undertaken by the agent on behalf of the client along with fees and expenses which would be required for the mentioned services. You have to be very serious regarding the statement of services as if this document is not provided to the client you may lose authority to claim your fees or even the out of pocket expenses paid by you. Thus it is recommended that you provide the company with a statement of services including the services you would undertake to apply for a Work Skilled Temporary Subclass 457 visa along with the details of the expenses to be incurred by the company for each service to ensure transparency. You should specifically include disbursements and out of pocket expenses which would be incurred by you in the statement. A few expense which must be included are the cost of health certificates, application fees, police certificate cost and cost of any required skill assessment for the visa. Coming to the accounting obligation of an agent you must be aware about a clients account. This is a specific account which is created by a person who is taking the help of a migration agent. The account is a bank account belonging to the client from which the migration agent has the authority to withdraw money whenever required for the proper discharge of their services. The account may not be required if you opt to receive the entire amount after the completion of the services. However you have to know that till all the mentioned services in the statement of service have not been completed you are not allowed to withdraw your personal fees from the clients account. You are also required to keep in mind that you have to have in place a professional indemnity insurance in accordance to regulation 6B of the MR. This is to ensure that the clients are compensated for a loss if any incurred because of the actions of the agent. The code of conduct or any legislation does not limit the amount of fees to be charge by you for the purpose of providing immigration assistance. However according to the code of conduct the fees charged by a migration agent has to be fair and reasonable. The fees according to the code may be based on the complexity in the situation of visa application and the experience which the migration agent has. The MARA set out a guideline for the visa application fees charged by the agents in Australia according to which the application fees differs from $1800-5000 in relation to a subclass 457 visa. The basic fees which is charged by the department for issuing a Subclass 457 visa is $1080. When it comes to ethics you have to know that the code expressly sets out that it is the duty of a migration agent to act fairly and diligently towards their clients. In addition the agents during the discharge of their functions must always abide by the existing legal provisions and not indulge in any coercion or misrepresentation for personal benefits at the cost of the clients. The provisions related to subclass 457 visas have been amended from 1st July 2017 and strict requirements have been set to be eligible for this visa. The visa is provided to those who are provided sponsorship by an approved business organization. The person who has made an application for this visa must be nominated by the approved business organization for a vacant position. The person applying from this visa has to have the knowledge regarding English language. The applicant also has to get their skills assessed by The Department of Education and Trainings Trades Recognition Australia[4]. The approved business have the duty to fill up Employee Sponsored Work Form 1196 with proper Australian Business Number (ABN), Australian Registered Body Number (ARN) and specific documents related to Australian Security and Investment Commission. In addition employer sponsored worker form 1066 has to be submitted by Josephine with relevant information about educational qualifications, references from past employers, licenses, penal clearance certificates and health assessments. You must also ensure that Josephine is informed about the obligations imposed on her if she gets the subclass 457 visa. A subclass 457 visa holder is subjected to conditions 8501 and 8107 under the migration regulations. According to these conditions the visa holder is not allowed to work for any other purpose other than what is allocated to them by the approved business. The holder must start working for the employer within 60 days of arrival in Australia. The holder must not stay in Australia after the visa ceases to be valid. Josephine would also have to obtain all licenses which would be required by her to carry out her functions in Australia. The visa would allow Josephine to come into and go out of Australia for any number of times till it is valid. The migration agents have a duty of care towards the clients as well as the department. As provided by part 2.9 of the code of conduct a registered migration agent to not support or encourage any application for visa which they believe or have reasons to believe to be misleading or likely to be misleading. There is a legal duty and a moral obligation imposed on each non resident who seeks to apply for a visa in Australia of not indulging in any falsity or misrepresentation while submitting information related to the visa application to the migration agents or the department of immigrations[5]. Therefore a non resident should not submit information to the department or agents which is incorrect or likely to be incorrect or misleading. Several provisions are provided by the Act to make sure that this obligation is taken very seriously the applicants and the agents. Any incorrect or misleading information coming to the knowledge of the migration agent has to be addressed by him with diligence and in accordance to law. The statutory requirements preventing any submission of incorrect and misleading information as provided through the Migration Act are as follows: Section 101: All non residents making a visa application has the legal obligation to only provide information which is true and appropriate in relation to the visa application. Section 109: If the department finds out that the application for the visa has been made through any false or misleading information the department has full authority to cancel such visa application on the basis of such information Section 48: if the visa application of a non resident has been rejected because of the fact that the applicant indulged in providing misleading or in correct information to the department, the applicant would not be allowed to make an application in relation to visa in Australia except for a few exceptions. In addition in case the applicant tries to provide a defence that they did not have knowledge about the fact that they have provided wrong information to the department or the agent they would not be exempted from the liability[6]. Even if it is provided by the applicants that the wrong information has been provided on behalf of them by the migration agent even then they cannot be exempted from the liability of their visa being cancelled. In Trivedi v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection[7] the court cancelled the visa application of the plaintiff even when the incorrect information was not provided intentionally. Thus, in the situation which you are facing in relation the wages as reported by Josephine, the company has to be notified that wrong information can lead to the cancellation of the visa. This situation must not be supported by you because of have the obligation to act in accordance to law. The company should be asked to change the wages or the same should be reported to the department so that further actions can be taken by them. Bibliography Austlii (2017) https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_reg/mar1998287/sch2.html. Crock, Mary, and L. A. Berg.Immigration, refugees and forced migration: law, policy law and practice in Australia. Federation Press, 2011. Hollifield, James, Philip Martin, and Pia Orrenius.Controlling immigration: A global perspective. Stanford University Press, 2014. Migration Act 1958 Migration Regulations 1998 Temporary Work (Skilled) Visa (Subclass 457)(2017) Border.gov.au https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/457-. Trivedi v minister for immigration and border protection2014 FCAFC 42 (4 April 2014)