It’s only money…

21 JAnuary 2016

Well it’s also time, energy, patience, …

We got our 457 Visa back in 2013, through an immigration agent my employer recommended, so we thought it would be a great idea to use the same agent for this one, the 186 Visa which automatically grants the long awaited P.R. (for permanent residency.)  Without it, we are living in a limbo-state of residency where we pay our taxes in Australia but do not benefit from any social security for instance.  Also, permanent residency is one of the condition required to apply for a loan, in the hope of buying a house, among many other advantages.  An agent, in our minds anyways, was a promise of a speedy process.

To be eligible for the 186, aka “Employer Nomination Scheme”, you have to have worked 24 months for the employer who has sponsored you in the first place,   So in February 2015, we met that first criteria and started the process.  I won’t share his name because there is an investigation going on and I don’t want to jeopardize this by shaming or slandering him, but he-who-shan’t-be-named therefore explained how things would go about. It’s quite simple really, you fill out a bunch of forms, you make sure you meet all the requirements, you upload the application and you file it officially with the Department of Immigration.

 The main reason of going with an agent, as opposed to doing the whole thing by yourself, is that the agent will make sure everything is in order before applying, as the fees are not refundable if you fail, and it would be a shame to fail for a simple bureaucratic reason.

So, there was a bit a lot of money exchanged, and the application was lodged.  By then we had both sat the IELTS exam that proves we had both a “competent” level of English (the official requirements are to have an overall score of 5, but we aced that one), and gotten with my employer through all the paperwork he too had to fill up and so forth.

And then finally, September 29th, an email: 

Dear Brice Servais, 

Your Visa Application has now been lodged with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

The Department will shortly assess your application for “Validity”. Once your application is determined by the Department to be “Valid”, you will be issued with a Bridging Visa (if you are onshore).

So, all we had to do now, was wait, approximately four weeks for all the relevant embassies and consulates to concur with our declaration.  We’d assumed by the fifth week the New-Caledonian embassy was taking its time, as they aren’t usually the fastest bunch when it comes to administration.

 Or anything for that matter.

By the end of November we started to think there was something odd, but as none of the emails that we sent were ever replied to, we kept on waiting.

Then Christmas came and we knew nothing would happen until early January.  All our plans were slightly delayed, like moving out, but hey it’s only a month or two, it’s not like we’re in a hurry really.

Last week, Claire was working from the Perth office and decided to pay a visit to the Department of Immigration downtown. Imagine her surprise when she was told there was no application lodged.  Neither her passport number, mine or our names yielded any results.  WTF ?  So yesterday, I decided to call the agency in Sydney and ask what the bloody hell was going on.

“The number you have dialed is disconnected”…  Hmm that’s no good,  Let’s send them an email, maybe they’re still on leave.  “Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups.  Remote Server returned ‘<xxxxxx #5.0.0 smtp; 550 #5.1.0 Address rejected.>”.  Website maybe ? 404 Page not found.

 Uh-oh.

No I’m getting nervous.  There’s gotta be a mistake.  Two hours spent on Google, all I could find was a bunch of past employees, his Facebook page (no new posts for two years), his Google+ page (no posts at all), his LinkedIn profile (nothing indicates he’s gone) and a bunch of irrelevant data.  One piece of information though was his MARN (Migration Agent Registration Number) which when I searched for it, gave me a big fat zero results

 Right, time to get down to Immigration and speak to someone.  Yup, it’s confirmed, the scum has not renewed his licence, and has probably disappeared, with our money.  Is there any trace of our application ? Nope.  Is there any chance to get anything back on track and start where we left off ? Nope.

 I did go to the Police but was told this was a civil matter and they could not do anything ; then to the bank to dispute the transaction but I doubt very much we’ll get that money back (close to 10 grand).  The only thing I could do was file a formal complaint with the Immigration and see what they can do.

 So, it’s been almost a one year, we’ll have lost twelve months, ten thousand dollars, and our current visa expires early next year.

 Back to square one, we’ll be filling up forms this WE…