Indian woman cheated by a migration agent in Australia

An Indian woman had her Visa rejected due to the fraud of her migration agent in Australia. After fighting a lengthy court battle, she was recently granted reprieve by the Dept. of Home Affairs.

Harpreet Kaur, the Indian woman, approached S&S Migration in March 2011. She had deferred her hairdressing course in Australia due to pregnancy. Thus, she was looking to get her Student Visa extended.

Jeetender Ajjan, who operated the Migration Agency, told her that he could get her a Work Visa instead of a Student Visa. He applied for a Post-Study Work Visa for her despite the fact that she had not completed her course. Ms Kaur paid Mr Ajjan $1,500 and gave him her passport for the Visa application.

Unknown to Ms Kaur, the migration agent claimed in his Visa submission that she had a positive Skill Assessment. He even mentioned a false reference number for the Skill Assessment. Also, he did not declare in the Visa application that S&S Migration was representing Ms Harpreet Kaur. Also, the email address which they mentioned on the application form did not belong to Ms Kaur.

S&S Migration was run by Jeetender Ajjan and an RMA Mahim Sodhani. Reetika Ajjan was the wife of Jeetender Ajjan and she was an officer with the Immigration Dept.

S&S Migration’s office was raided in October 2011 post which both Jeetender and Reetika Ajjan fled Australia. They had also transferred $1.2 million to an overseas bank before fleeing Australia, as per SBS News. It came to light that they were involved in hundreds of fraud visa applications involving millions of dollars. The Immigration Dept. even found Ms Harpreet Kaur’s file among other Visa applications.

The Immigration Dept. cancelled Ms Kaur’s visa application in May 2012 for providing false information. Her Visa application claimed to have a positive Skill Assessment whereas TRA had never issued her one.

She made appeals in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and later in the Federal Circuit Court. She claimed that she was unaware of any false information being furnished by her migration agent. She appeals were rejected twice.

The Federal Circuit Court felt that she was indifferent and wanted to see if she was lucky enough to get a Visa. The court also pointed out that when she was informed of fraud by her Migration Agent, she still did not withdraw her application.

Ms Kaur told the Court that she had engaged a new migration agent after Mr Ajjan fled the country. Her new Migration Agent did not tell her to withdraw her application. She was told to rather wait for her Visa outcome.

Ms Kaur was able to prove that the email address mentioned on her Visa application was not hers. Thus, she did not receive any correspondence from the Immigration Dept.

The Federal Court of Australia upheld the decision of the Federal Circuit Court last month. The Federal Court accepted that Ms Kaur was kept in the dark about the wrongdoings of her Migration Agent. It also accepted that the Federal Circuit Court’s decision to reject her appeals twice was erroneous.

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If you are looking to Visit, Study, Work, Invest or Migrate to Australia, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Consultant.

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