Wong Gomez Singh has been issed their visa on the condition that:
- They remain in the employ of the Wayside Tavern for two years,
- Do not perform a type of job other than that for which they are employed, and
- All work they perform is to be in a specified geographic area (say "Nth Qld).
You are obliged to report it to the dept if the sponsored employee leave the job, for any reason whatsoever.
So Mine Host contacts the Immigration Dept to report that Wong Gomez Singh has quit their job.
The immigration officer taking the call stifles a yawn and tersely reminds Mine Host that in this and any future cases Mine Host is legally required to report the matter. ("Thankyou" would have sufficed.)
Mine Host phones the Immigration Dept again with details of Wong Gomez Singh's new job, seething that the new employer has not had to meet any of the pre-conditions, or gone to any cost.
The immigration officer stifles a yawn and makes note of the "additional information".
A few months later, Mine Host phone the department again, to find out why Wong Gomez Singh has not had their visa cancelled?
This is when things start to happen!
The very first thing to happen is the Immigration Officer tersely informs Mine Host that they aren't just going to cancel a visa, not without fully investigating to see if there has in fact been a breach.
(Payroll records would do it, from both my place and the new empoyer)
Mine Host is informed (pretty roughly) that this sort of thing is "playing with people's residency".
Er... no... they don't get residency until they fulfil all conditions of their visa. (So says the brochure, so says the immigration dept's website.)
So Mine Host places a phone call to the "Visa Cancellation Team", and it feels like things are under way at last. Oh boy, are they interested in this. No, there is no record in the dept of Wong Gomez Singh ever being investigated or anything. Yes, there will now be an investigation.
This Visa Cancellation Team really likes to hear from the sponsoring employer, and will take testimony of the employer into consideration when making a decision, blah blah blah....
Mine Host never again hears from either the Visa Cancellation Team, or anybody else in the department.
In the subsequent months Wong Gomez Singh starts working in a totally different field to that prescribed on the visa, then with a move to the metropolis of Melbourne Wong Gomez Singh breaches the final condition of their visa, which is no matter what, to remain in a "regional" area for the full two years.
Wong Gomez Singh is subsquently granted permenant residency, citizenship to automatically follow.
Wong Gomez Singh has not adhered to even one condition of their visa.
This has happened to Mine Host three times. To the neighboring employer, four times.
You may think that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship does nothing to enforce, or even investigate, breaches of visa conditions by visa holders.
You may be right.
You may think that it is a regular event for an employer sponsored worker to breach every condition of their visa, yet be granted Australian citizenship.
You may well be right.
6 comments:
Sounds like your bureaucracy needs a boot in the bum.
Out the door.
If you drop a line to Scott Morrison, Shadow Minister for Immigration, he might be able to ask some questions in the House. Not that he would get any answers, of course.
It could also add to Scott's list of things he will have to fix after Sep 14.
Very public spirited of you to pursue this case with such determination, but your account suggests that public-spiritedness was mixed with retribution for WGS's breach of the kanakish statutory indenture which bound WGS to you.
Do you actually know what WGS's intervening visa status was up to the point where WGS obtained citizenship?
Anybody else find it highly disturbing that Mine Host knows that an ex-employee has moved to Melbourne and exactly what field they are now employed in two states away?
Of course if she also reported the situation to the Department of Immigration it is quite conceivable that the first two conditions were amended to the new employer and the new job description, and if her move to Melbourne was prior to the 2 year requirement on her original Visa then it is possible that she applied for a modification of that condition of her Visa. She may well be in breach of NONE of the conditions of her Visa, all of which of course is none of your business once you have reported her leaving your employment.
If the conditions are amended then surely the co-signatory to the original agreement must be informed. Either way, it's another case of the useless Gillard government making it up as they go along.
I sometimes don't realise just how little some people get around.
Marcellous & Rob remind me that I'll have to expand on a few things, and explain how the world works.
Upcoming post! Stay tuned, etc.
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