Sukhwinder Singh: registration cancelled by OMARA on 28 Feb 2017

What the Authority decided

On 28 February 2017, the Authority decided to cancel the registration of registered migration agent, Sukhwinder Singh, following the Authority's investigation into one complaint in relation to the Agent's conduct. At the conclusion of this investigation, the Authority was satisfied that the Agent had:

• failed to inform the client of a Departmental request for information, resulting in the refusal of the application
• failed to submit documents to the Department and the Tribunal in a coherent and relevant manner which addressed the visa criteria
• failed to notify a client of the Tribunal’s decision in a timely manner causing the client to become unlawful
• failed to obtain client instructions prior to submitting a court appeal
• caused the lodgement of a document to the court with a forged signature
• failed to notify the client of the outcome of the court appeal
• failed to enter into an Agreement for Services and Fees
• failed to give the client an itemised account or statement of services for fees and disbursements paid to him
• has a record of failing to meet his professional obligations and
• has a record of failing to properly respond to client complaints.

The Authority found that the Agent had breached clauses 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.8, 5.2, 5.5, 6.1, 7.5 and 9.3 of the Code of Conduct. The Authority also found that the Agent was not a person of integrity and not a fit and proper person to give immigration assistance.

An abridged 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.

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.