Welcome
The right visa advice: and your peace of mind to successful visa issue
JTH Immigration Planning Consultants are lawyers who are specialised in migration.
All non-Australians travelling or working in Australia need a visa. We can assist you in determining the correct visa for you or your employees, and increase your chances of securing appropriate visa(s) for Australia expediently.
We advise on all types of visas and can assist businesses, individuals, and family members, including assistance with complex matters such as:
- cases involving persons over 45;
- business migration;
- appeals; and
- cases involving custody, health or character concerns.
To assist you here, we offer:
- After-hours appointments - see our services;
- For business clients, we can quickly give you an idea of the feasibility of bringing employees to Australia and offer a range of services for ongoing clients. - read more.
- Take our helpful, comprehensive migration assessment (fee applies) to find out which visas you are eligible for - we consider all visas.
- Our FAQ or immigration law information may also assist you.
We are committed to ethical conduct in the migration profession and do not accept cases we do not think will be successful.
Please write or call us for assistance.
Yours faithfully
Julie Heller | MARN 0501168
Principal Consultant
Dec
12th
Immigration and the tax office share information to stop fraud
The ATO has a new data matching project which will enable the immigration department to provide the ATO with the names, addresses and other details of temporary workers. These include sponsored subclass 457 visa holders, working holiday makers and students who applied for their visa between July 2008 and 31 March 2011.
The ATO seems concerned principally about non-compliance with tax return lodgement, tax registration and fraudulent activities concerning refunds. In addition, there appears to be a particular focus on students who work in Australia, possibly in breach of their visa conditions around work permission. Effective compliance and collection action against visa holders before they depart Australia appears to be a key objective of this exercise.
This data matching activity is significant for visa holders as information gathered and shared by the ATO will be used by the immigration department to target compliance work such as:
- Penalising employers who have paid staff less than their nominated salary – noting also that the 457 visa may be cancelled if this has occurred;
- Cancelling student visas for breach of the 20 hour work limit;
- Follow-up for working holiday makers who have worked for more than 6 months for one employer;
- Spouse visa applicants recorded as having different addresses or spouses than those claimed in a visa application.
The new fraud public interest criterion 4020 could also be activated to refuse visas if ATO records indicate misleading/fraudulent information has been provided to DIAC.
Employers need to be prepared for ongoing audit activity as government regulators will continue collaborative targeting in pursuit of compliance and revenue.