Imad Kadeh: registration cancelled by OMARA on 25 Oct 2018

What the Authority decided

On 25 October 2018, the Authority decided to cancel the registration of registered migration agent Mr Imad Kadeh (MARN: 0801263). As a result of an investigation into two complaints, the Authority was satisfied that the Agent had breached clauses 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.6, 2.9A, 2.17, 2.21, 2.23, 3.4, 3.5, 5.2, 6.1, 6.1A, 6.2, 6.3 and 9.3 of the Code of Conduct for Migration Agents.

The Authority found that the Agent:

• Did not act in his client’s legitimate and best interests or have due regard for his client’s dependence on his knowledge and experience.
• Did not possess a sound working knowledge of the migration legislation
• Failed to maintain appropriate record keeping and record management practices.
• Lodged a number of vexatious applications with no prospects of success.
• Failed to issue his clients with Agreements for Services and Fees.
• Moved his business location and failed to advise the Authority of the change.
• Mislead and deceived the Authority and in turn failed to maintain the integrity and repute of the migration advice profession.
• Failed to respond to the Authority’s notices issued pursuant to sections 308 and 305(c) of the Act.

It was also determined that the Agent was not a person of integrity and not a fit and proper person to give immigration assistance.

A redacted version of the Authority’s decision can be accessed below.

Personal details have been removed in the interests of protecting the privacy of the persons involved.

On 06 November 2018, an appeal of the decision was lodged with the AAT by Mr Kadeh.

The decision summary above is reproduced from the Authority's published record of this decision, which also carries the decision document itself. Nothing has been added to it.

What a cancellation means if this was your agent

The registration is removed. The agent's name comes off the Register of Migration Agents and they may not give immigration assistance. A cancellation is usually accompanied by a period during which the person may not be registered again.

Nobody is acting on your matter right now. Treat this as urgent, and start with who the Department is writing to.

If this was your agent: the first week

1. Find out where your application actually is. If you have an ImmiAccount, log in. The clock does not stop because your representation did.
2. Check who the Department is writing to. A Form 956 makes an agent the authorised recipient, and correspondence sent to them is taken to have been given to you. A deadline sent to an inbox nobody reads is still a deadline.
3. Get your file. Your documents are yours and the Code requires them back — originals first. How to get your file back.
4. Work out what was paid and what was done. Ask for the itemised invoices and receipts the Code requires. Routes to recover money work better started early.
5. Complain, if there is something to complain about. A published decision does not close your own file. Where to complain, and what OMARA can and cannot do.
6. Only then, find someone else. A new agent needs the file and the dates. The first five steps are what make that first conversation useful instead of exploratory.

What this decision does not mean

It is a decision about one individual on one date. Only a person can be a registered migration agent — a company cannot — so it says nothing about anyone else at the same practice. Decisions of this kind are reviewable, and bars and suspensions expire. The register is where the current position lives.

Decision information sourced from the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority and used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence. VisaBid is not affiliated with OMARA or the Department of Home Affairs.