We at Down Under Visa are faced with what could be ethical dilemmas all the time. They could be, if we were inclined to walk on the wild side of our Migration Agent profession. But fortunately we are not. Therefore to us these are not ethical dilemmas at all.

I’m talking about when visa clients present to us with false statements or omissions of information that causes false statements to be made (eg. not mentioning that they have kids, which in effect makes a statement that they have no kids), and bogus documents (whether through clerical error or through deliberate attempts to conceal certain facts).

Ethics!

There are rules that we need to abide by. Clients are required to tell the truth with their Australian visa applications, and to only give us documents for their visa applications that are genuine documents full of genuine information.

These are the rules:

Rules for clients (from Reg 4020 from the Migration Regulations 1994)

…….has given or caused to be given, to the Minister, an officer, the Migration Review Tribunal, a relevant assessing authority or a Medical Officer of the Commonwealth, a bogus document or information that is false or misleading in a material particular in relation to:

1. The application for the visa; or
2. A visa that the applicant held in the period of 12 months before the application was made.

Rules for Registered Migration Agents (from the Code of Conduct for Registered Migration Agents)

2.9 A registered migration agent must not make statements in support of an application under the Migration Act or Migration Regulations, or encourage the making of statements, which he or she knows or believes to be misleading or inaccurate.

Can Down Under Visa look the other way?

Definitely not. We risk losing our Registration with the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA) if we did. And sorry, but much as we care about our clients, we won’t fall on our sword for any situation. We need to keep earning a living here. So saying “Ooops! Hey, can you just pretend I never told you I have kids?” or similar? No, sorry!

Can we accept a poor and ineffective solution?

We put up a BLOG article a few weeks ago about affidavits and how the Department (DIBP) and the Australian Embassy won’t accept Band-Aid solutions. That still applies.

And know something? We COULD let applications go through with Band-Aid solutions, and we would not be so obviously breaking the Code as if we knowing accepted false statements as above. However there’s one more rule in the Code that we would be.

See below:

2.1 A registered migration agent must always:

(a) act in accordance with the law (including, for an agent operating as an agent in a country other than Australia, the law of that country) and the legitimate interests of his or her client; and

(b) deal with his or her client competently, diligently and fairly.

Hardly in the best interests of a client and hardly diligent, competent and fair to watch calmly as a client walks into certain disaster, as would happen if they submitted false statements and/or bogus documents in their visa application armed with a statement that only confirms that they HAVE made false statements. Imagine what the Case Officer would think if they receive a document containing false information along with an affidavit that admits doing so? Reg 4020 covers statements and documents made “knowingly or unknowingly”, so saying “Yeah, but I didn’t realise…” won’t make any difference.

Why should you listen to Down Under Visa?

Why listen to us, and not to the good mate who’s sure he knows all about this? Or not to the Philippines attorney who assures you that an affidavit cures all legal ills? Or the clerk in the government office who assures you nothing is wrong, and/or that nothing can be done?

Because we have nothing to gain, and everything to lose!

What do we gain by telling you the truth? Apart from the ability to sleep well at night knowing we’re doing the right thing, we gain extra work and extra headaches!

Do we get paid more? No. We spend time explaining what happened. We sometimes cop the wrath of frustrated and disbelieving clients of the “Surely they….?” and “But it was only…..?” variety. And we have to spend more time giving guidance and checking further documents making sure that the client gets it right, and all as part of the package. So unless we have nothing better to do than to give you extra jobs to do, we’re probably telling you because it’s part of how we take care of you and your overall interests. You didn’t pay us to be “Yes-men”, only to run away when the visa gets refused.

We will always act ethically according to the rules and the law, and we will always act in your best interest. “Help me to help you”, as Tom Cruise said in that movie!