Friday, January 11, 2013

Visa Breach (part 1)

As raised in comments of the previous post, there is a serious & chronic problem with employer-sponsored visa holders intentionally breaching the conditions of their visa, and the Immigration Dept refusing the police the matter.

A plethora of different employer-sponsored visa subclasses exist.  Some of them have very different conditions imposed on both the employer and the visa holder.

Sponsoring employers are held very tightly to their obligations.  Many employers are stripped of their licence to sponsor for the slightest mere technical breach of their conditions.

Example:  The sponsor is (say) Herb McDonald, of "Wattle Flats" station via Black Stumpville.  Herb applies to sponsor skilled farm workers, and is issued a licence to employ overseas staff under subclass 457, for farming work, on "Wattle Flats" station.

It subsequently comes to the attention of the Immigration Dept that Herb McDonald and his 457 visa holders went through the fence into neighboring "Shady Plains" to recover some sheep that had strayed.

The licence to employ very clearly states that any 457 visa holders employed by Herb McDonald can only do work on "Wattle Flats" station.  Thus the Immigration Dept writes to Herb McDonald informing him that:  As on a certain date he had used his 457 visa holders not on "Wattle Flats", but on "Shady Plains" there has been a clear breach of his conditions as an employer, and his licence to employ sponsored workers is hereby cancelled.


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Employers actually have lost their licence to employ for this very thing, and sometimes for much less.

Okay! We have now established just how seriously the Immigration Dept views employer obligations, and just how strictly these obligations are enforced. 

Stand by to see how seriously the dept views it when visa conditions are breached by an ... actual visa holder....