Maryam Shahi: registration cancelled by OMARA on 18 Dec 2018

What the Authority decided

On 18 December 2018, the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (the Authority) decided to cancel the registration of migration agent Ms Maryam Shahi (MARN 9895630) for a period for five years. Following the Authority’s investigation into eight complaints, the Authority was satisfied that the Agent had breached clauses 2.1, 2.4, 2.8, 2.23, 5.5, 6.1, 6.1A, 6.3, 7.2, 9.1, 9.3 and 10.6 of the Code of Conduct. The Agent was found to have imposed excessive security bonds on no less than two of her clients, which were separate to, and unauthorised by the Department, failed to refund the full bond amounts to these clients, and transferred one client’s security bond of $50 000 from her clients’ account to an offshore bank account for unexplained reasons, without the client’s knowledge or permission.

The Agent was also found to have failed to render services to no less than six clients, for which she was paid, and to keep her clients fully informed of the progress of their matters, and have continued to engage new clients when she was unable to provide the same agreed services to existing clients. Further, in the case of one of these clients, the Authority was satisfied that the Agent deliberately misled her client about the services undertaken on his VETASSESS application, in order to conceal her conduct. The Agent’s conduct was found to have caused considerable financial loss to multiple clients, including her failure to repay an outstanding bond amount of $37 500 to one affected client.

The Agent failed to properly respond to complaints published to her under section 308(1) of the Act, and to demonstrate that she had maintained proper client records in relation to three complaints, and failed to respond properly to the publication of the remaining five complaints by the Authority, and attempts by the clients to terminate her services. Further, the Agent has demonstrated a failure to adopt the Authority’s previous recommendations regarding ongoing concerns with her communication practice, and has repeatedly failed to respond to the Authority and client attempts to contact her. In doing so, the Authority was satisfied that the Agent demonstrated a disregard for the migration regulatory scheme, and her client’s interests, posed a serious and ongoing risk to consumers, and was not a person of integrity, or otherwise not a fit and proper person to give immigration assistance.

কর্তৃপক্ষের সিদ্ধান্তের একটি সংক্ষিপ্ত সংস্করণ নিচে দেখা যাবে। সংশ্লিষ্ট ব্যক্তিদের গোপনীয়তা রক্ষার স্বার্থে ব্যক্তিগত তথ্য সরিয়ে দেওয়া হয়েছে। 14 January 2019 তারিখে, Agent বাতিলের সিদ্ধান্তের পর্যালোচনার জন্য Administrative Appeals Tribunal-এ আবেদন করেন।

উপরের সিদ্ধান্তের সারাংশটি পুনরুত্পাদিত হয়েছে Authority-এর প্রকাশিত রেকর্ড 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

নিবন্ধনটি সরিয়ে দেওয়া হয়। এজেন্টের নাম Register of Migration Agents থেকে বাদ যায় এবং তারা immigration assistance দিতে পারেন না। সাধারণত বাতিলের সঙ্গে এমন একটি সময়কাল থাকে, যার মধ্যে ব্যক্তি আবার নিবন্ধিত হতে পারেন না।

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

এটি যদি আপনার এজেন্ট হয়ে থাকে: প্রথম সপ্তাহ

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. Department কাকে লিখছে তা যাচাই করুন। 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. আপনার ফাইল সংগ্রহ করুন। আপনার নথি আপনারই এবং Code অনুযায়ী সেগুলো ফেরত দিতে হবে — originalগুলো আগে। How to get your file back.
4. কী পরিশোধ করা হয়েছে এবং কী করা হয়েছে তা বের করুন। Code অনুযায়ী যে itemised invoice এবং receipt দরকার, সেগুলো চাইুন। টাকা ফেরত পাওয়ার পথগুলো work better started early.
5. অভিযোগ করার মতো কিছু থাকলে, অভিযোগ করুন। A published decision does not close your own file. কোথায় অভিযোগ করবেন, এবং OMARA কী করতে পারে এবং কী করতে পারে না.
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 এখানেই বর্তমান অবস্থানটি থাকে।

Decision information sourced from the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority এবং একটি-এর অধীনে ব্যবহৃত Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence. VisaBid is not affiliated with OMARA or the Department of Home Affairs.