Know what to do when things go wrong

Added by John Bell on January 24, 2014
Saved under Articles by Migration Agents

In this article, I use some “real life” examples of cases we have managed to give you an idea of the sorts of things that can happen which may affect you either before you lodge (during preparation) or after you have lodged your application.

By the end of this article, you will hopefully see that it is a very good idea to have your case managed by a professional. Your visa application may be one of the most important things you do – it can change you and your family’s lives forever. Do it properly. There is so much that can go wrong if you don’t know what you are doing. In many cases, once you miss your window of opportunity, you may never get it again.

Example 1:

We recently had a client where a constant flow of unusual things went wrong. These included things like:

To obtain a USA police clearance (which was a requirement for the visa for this applicant), you must submit your fingerprints to the FBI. Because the applicant was a medical professional, she washes her hands a lot. This made her fingerprints unreadable, which caused problems that we managed for her.

The applicant learned during processing that to obtain citizenship of another country (which she really wanted to do), she was required to spend a significant amount of time in the other country during the processing of her Australian visa. This affected numerous things with her application.
She was pregnant during the process, which brought with it a set of complications also.

The issues mentioned above were just a few of the things which arose for this client (there were many more). We had to manage each stage for her, overcoming obstacles and explaining the effect of each thing that happened to her case and making sure that she could still meet requirements for her visa, guiding her through when she needed to be in Australia, and when it was okay to be outside Australia.

By having a professional manage her case, this applicant obtained her visa and knew exactly what was happening the whole time. If she tried to do this on her own, there were so many obstacles, and with so little publicly available information to guide her, there is a very good chance she would not have her visa right now.

Example 2:

Another recent example was an applicant we had for a skilled migration visa. With this applicant, the requirements for state sponsorship changed during preparation numerous times. He also had major issues with his skills assessment. Examples of the things that went “wrong” include:

The skills assessing authority (in this case VETASSESS) did not want to recognise his occupation as the one he needed to nominate to be successful. They suggested an occupation that was not on the Skilled Occupations List for visas! We overcame this issue for him and managed to obtain the skills assessment for the occupation he needed. The chance of him being able to do this on his own would have been virtually nil.

For this applicant to meet visa requirements, he also needed to obtain state government sponsorship. During the preparation of his application, the state government changed their English language requirements. So, when we started preparations for him, he met the requirement, and then the state changed so he didn’t meet. We were able to discuss this individual case with the state representatives and obtain the necessary sponsorship, despite the applicant technically not meeting the requirements. Again, he would not have been able to achieve this on his own.

As with the case above, this one had many more things “go wrong” during preparation. He ended up with his skilled migration visa because, as professional migration agents, we know how to handle these sorts of things. If there is a way we can manage you through to a successful outcome, we will do everything we can to find it.

Use a professional:

The cases noted above are just a couple of recent ones that spring to mind. We see different things like this every day.

Imagine how many things could possibly go wrong with your application. Would you know what to do? Where would you look for information? Would you know if the Department of Immigration is making an error? Would you know if visa requirements have changed, and if so, how the changes affect you?

Managing your case yourself may seem like it can save you a little money, but in the end could very well end up costing you your visa application. Using a professional maximises your chance of a successful outcome, and with a visa, that’s really all that matters.

What Service to use?

We have a number of services which could help you, everything from Phone, Skype or Office Consultations right up to our Premier Service.

With the Premier Service, we act as your representative and manage your application from start to finish. If you really want to protect yourself and maximise your opportunity of a successful result, this is the service to choose.

An alternative option may be the Visa Advantage Service. With this service, we provide you a visa guide to help you self-manage your application. You also have access to ask us questions via e-mail for 90 days (3 months). So, if you feel that you just need a little guidance, we’ve got you covered with this option.

You can get the process started by taking an online assessment on our website. From there, you will be provided service options. You can either proceed directly, or call us to discuss before you proceed.

I look forward to being able to help you with your visa situation in future.

Finding reliable, professional visa help can be very challenging. If you have found this article helpful, please take a moment to share it using the icon visible on the left-hand side of this page.

John Bell
General Manager and Senior Migration Agent
MARN 0321386

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John Bell

Migration Advisor at National Visas

John Bell has been involved in the immigration industry since 2000 and has practiced in Australia as an Australian Registered Migration Agent since 2003. John also worked in the UK as a UK immigration adviser between 2000 and 2002.