Introduction

Migrant Overview

Cutting Through the Complexity

Should you use a Consultant?

Migrant Overview

The Australian Government operates a strict and rigid immigration policy to achieve social and economic goals through the temporary and permanent movement of people and skills. Nowadays, the Australian Government is focusing more on migrants who can demonstrate they will bring Professional, Trade or Business skills to Australia, whilst still maintaining the policy of allowing family and humanitarian based applications as well.

What is clear, is that the Australian Government will only allow entry to those migrants it believes will settle well and add benefit to Australia.

Age plays a large factor in whether an application will succeed or not and a greater reliance on competency in English language ability under many categories. The Government is moving to a far more selective approach when deciding those people it will and will not let into the country and this is making satisfying entry criteria far more complex. English language ability may be relevant to a visa applicant in two respects namely:

• It may determine the score that an applicant will achieve and;
• A certain level of English language ability may be a requisite to be able to apply for a particular type of visa.

Different types of visas will have different requirements in this regard and it is important to ascertain the English language requirements of the class of visa that you will be applying for.  We are happy to discuss your particular circumstances.

The Australian Government is now seeking to allow entry to around 190,000 people each year.

There are approximately 170 different types of visas for travel to Australia. These are divided mainly into Temporary and Permanent Visas.

Temporary Visas are visas that allow a person to come to Australia for a specific time and purpose. For example, as a tourist, student or on a work permit. Permanent Visas allow people to come to Australia on a permanent basis, although some types of permanent visas do have further obligations that must be satisfied upon arrival in Australia.

Permanent Visas are generally divided into 4 main categories:

• General Skilled Migration
• Business Skills Migration
• Family Migration
• Refugee and Humanitarian Migration

Cutting through complexity for Australian Migrants:

Although changes to the system over recent years have been made in an attempt to bring some transparency to immigration decisions, it has in fact added greater uncertainty and complexity to the process, with outside assessing bodies and regional and even local differences making the task of the applicant a frustrating and often daunting one.

In this challenging and frustrating environment, a thorough understanding of immigration policy and practice, experience in the preparation and presentation of residence applications and a close working relationship with the bureaucrats who decide the outcome of applications is paramount to their successful passage.

We know government immigration policy even better than most people who work for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and sometimes receive unsolicited referrals from the department themselves! We understand intimately what is required to qualify for residence and focus on a client's strengths and ensure that Government officials get the documentation they need to approve an application if policy allows or to maximise the applicant's chances of success if they are applying under one of the more subjective categories. This has never been more important than it is now.

Government officials are there to administer government policy rigidly and dispassionately, with concern for rules, regulations and numbers. Their task is to accept or reject according to prescribed criteria not to facilitate.

In this bureaucratic climate, a worthy applicant can often be deterred, disadvantaged or denied approval simply by their lack of knowledge of the finer points of the Australian Immigration law, policy and procedure and access to reliable information.

The rejection rates under some categories remain high. Not surprisingly, the best private sector consultants have become critical to many applicants wanting to increase the level of certainty they will get the residence they seek. IMMagine Australia is among the very best in this field.

The eligibility criteria are complex and it is not possible to provide anything more than a fairly generalised overview here. If you seek further information on your eligibility we urge you to complete our preliminary assessment attached to this web site and if it indicates that you may qualify, you should then download and complete our comprehensive questionnaire and return it to us along with our assessment fee so we can advise you on what options you might have and what barriers you might confront.

In the feedback we receive from our web visitors we are often asked to add a detailed breakdown of the various immigration categories and a detailed explanation of how they work. We have resisted this as far as we can for a simple reason it is too complex to do so effectively. The risks to the reader are too high when trying to offer anything more than a summary of policy criteria.

The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship also operate a Website that will give you some idea of your eligibility but should be treated with caution. It is valuable as far as it goes and can be lethal for what it leaves out.

The reality is that every person's situation will be different and every angle needs to be explored if a successful strategy is to be identified. We therefore insist on carrying out our own assessment before accepting an assignment to ensure that the initial preliminary assessment points to a strong possibility of meeting eligibility criteria.

This is for the good of our clients because if we say you don't qualify it is highly unlikely any application you file will be successful. The Department confirms that it's own web information and their self-assessment guides are only summaries which give an overview of policy but which cannot be counted on to convey all the critically important information the applicant requires.

Given the difficulty in speaking to an Immigration officer in person, inexperienced staff and high staff turnover many people fail in their application because they cannot rely on the information provided by the Department. We often spend days tidying up the messes caused by applicants not understanding a potentially very complex process after obtaining advice from the Department. Remember, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is not in the business of providing advice; we are in that business!

Should you use an Australian Immigration Consultant?

In writing this we realise just how much we have left out in each category summary. The Act, Regulations, Ministerial Instructions and Procedure Advice Manual out of which the Department of Immigration and Citizenship operate is thousands of pages long. So be warned this is an overview designed only to give you some idea of the criteria.

We do not believe that the Department is capable of providing you with all the advice, information and support that you require. If they were there would be a far lower rate of rejection than occurs.

Would you put your family's future entirely into the hands of a bureaucrat in another country?

Applying for residence of another country is a big decision and we believe based on our many years of experience dealing with the fallout of those trying to negotiate the process themselves that professional guidance should always be sought.

At the moment potential migrants are not protected by any law and if you wish to use a consultant, beware. And you should. There are widely differing standards that consultants apply to their own businesses.

In Australia, a person must be registered as a Migration Agent with the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA). It is an offence to provide advice on migration or Immigration Law unless you are a registered Migration Agent or Lawyer.

Outside Australia, the Australian authorities have no jurisdiction or power to regulate people providing migration advice and assistance. Thus, if you can say Migration Agent you can be one. So, please check our credentials and registration and you will see we are fully registered.

To maintain our MARA registration, we must attend numerous seminars and courses to keep our knowledge and skills current. Many of these are presented by the Immigration Officers and Policy makers personally. We hear it right from the source!

In addition to be registered with MARA, we are also members of the Migration Institute of Australia which is a self-regulating industry body.

Importantly, the Directors of IMMagine Australia have between them, over 50 years of experience in advising and assisting migrants from all countries. There is no substitute for experience!

Your Consultant should be prepared not only to assess eligibility and complete the significant paperwork required, but should also give guidance on such important issues as cost of living, employment opportunities, housing, education, lifestyle, putting you in contact with banks, insurance companies, getting tax numbers and so on. If they are not Australians living in Australia, it is hard to see how they can be as credible.

Without the assistance and support of a consultant who is bound by strict ethical rules and who lives under Australian law an applicant has little or no protection from unscrupulous operators.

Consultants do make a significant difference if they have a track record of success and ethical behaviour. Of that there is no doubt.

Click here to read about the criteria & processes involved in the government's assessment