TERMS OF SERVICE
SERVICE AND FEE AGREEMENT
Thank you for accepting the Estimate of Fees. The purpose of this letter is to advise you that the Estimate of Fees is an integral component of this Agreement for Services and Fees and is incorporated into it; and to confirm our understanding of the terms and objectives of this Agreement together with the scope and limitations of the immigration services we will provide.
DELIVERABLE
The objective of our professional services is to present the visa application to the Immigration Department in the best possible manner in compliance with Australia’s immigration laws, policies and procedures. We will provide recommendations on how you can best comply with Australian Government requirements to lodge a valid and complete visa application. You must be aware that lodging a complete visa application may depend upon time constraints such as to when any existing visas may expire and when you wish your application to be lodged.
Please note provision of bogus, false or misleading information or documents, including documents of identity, is a criminal offence and can result in visa and review applications being refused; and any visas granted on the basis of those documents or information being cancelled.
OUR OBLIGATIONS TO YOU
Act honestly and fairly in your best interests;
Treat you with respect and recognise that clients have diversity, different cultures and values;
Treat you with respect and recognise that clients have diversity, different cultures and values;
Our fees and charges are fair and reasonable, based on the complexity of work to be undertaken, and reflect our experience, knowledge and skills within the profession;
Act with due skill and diligence, responsibility, promptness and courtesy;
Maintain your confidences and privacy;
Avoid conflicts of interest, disclose any personal or professional interests or commissions;
Communicate effectively and promptly with you;
Follow any lawful instruction you give us consistent with the scope of services and the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
YOUR OBLIGATIONS TO US
Give us full and clear instructions;
Be honest and lawful in your dealings with us (it is an offence to provide false or misleading,information, a bogus document or inaccurate personal identity information);
Treat us with respect and trust;
Provide documents and information within the timeframes provided;
Understand the fees and costs associated with your matter and pay these as required under this agreement;
Ask us questions should you not understand what is required;
Keep us informed of any change in address, contact details or if there is any change in your circumstances (we will determine if the change is material to your application);
Make appointments to see your migration agent so that we can devote sufficient time to your matter and prepare any documents for you as appropriate.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
Provide documents and information in a timely manner or by a date specified in communications;(work on your matter can not commence until all documents and information have been provided to us);
Provide us with original documents together with one clean copy of each document as requested by us in a timely manner, alternatively email us colour scans of documents;
In completing the Client Questionnaire you are required to answer all questions accurately and completely; where the client questionnaire is returned to us with missing information we will return it to you for amendment.
Sending us text messages to arrange appointments or to pass information onto us is not acceptable practice and will generally be ignored; and
Telephone calls made to us outside of our normal business hours will not be answered and you will be requested to call us back during the business hours.
TERMINATION OF SERVICES
Either party may terminate this Agreement at any time by giving written notice. Upon termination the client will pay the agent for the work undertaken to that point in time. Excess funds held in the Client’s Account will be refunded to you.
In calculating the appropriate professional fees owing, the following rules will be adopted:
Under this agreement the following estimates will apply. Once the client agrees to proceed further with the application and submits the documents to us, the 25% fees will be charged as the document handling fees and will be not refunded if the client does not wish to proceed further. Once the application is prepared and is ready to lodge, 50% of engagement has been performed. Once the application is lodged 75% of the fee is payable. Upon finalisation of the application irrespective of the outcome, 100 % of the fees will be payable to us and no refund will be issued once the application decision is made.
RETENTION OF DOCUMENTS
It is our practice to give you copies of any documents lodged. We will keep the copy of all the documents and communication in our records, this will be available upon request if required. At the time the visa application is decided you will for all practical purposes have a copy of the file we retain. It is a requirement under our Code of Conduct to retain engagement documentation for a period of seven years, after which time we will commence the process of destroying the contents of our engagement files. To the extent we accumulate any of your original documents during the engagement, these documents will be returned to you promptly as soon as they are sighted and certified as being true copies. You will provide us with a receipt for the return of such records. The engagement file is our property, and we will provide copies of such documents at our discretion and if compensated for any time and costs associated with the effort particularly if you have been given copies of those documents during the course of the engagement. In the event we are required to respond to a subpoena, court order or other legal process for the production of documents and/or testimony relative to information we obtained and/or prepared during the course of this engagement, you agree to compensate us at our prevailing hourly rates, as set out in our current Schedule of Fees, for the time we expend in connection with such response, and to reimburse us for all of our outof-pocket costs incurred in that regard.
PRIVACY ACT & CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY
We are not bound by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988. However as a matter of internal policy and in complying with our obligations under the Registered Migration Agents Code of Conduct we adhere to the underlying values contained in the APPs. The personal information you provide to us is collected, used and disclosed to other entities in the continuance of your immigration matter where you have a reasonable expectation that your personal information will be used and disclosed by us. This could include, but not limited to, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, skills assessing authorities, your sponsor (family sponsor or employer sponsor/nominator), regional certifying bodies (visa subclass 187), State or Territory Governments (for sponsorship/nomination purposes, for example subclass 132, 188, 190, 487, 489, 887 and 888 visas); and the Australian Federal Police and/or foreign police services (where you request us to apply for police clearances on your behalf).
Your personal information will be disclosed where there is a legal obligation placed upon us to do so.
