Graham Paddington

Graham Paddington & Associates Pty Ltd
ACN 614 349 067
Migration Agents and Business Consultants
MARN 0006555

Why lodging your own application can =

$$DOLLARS$$ DANGER & DISASTER!!

Information which is freely available on the Internet, including popular "immigration forums" etc, is frequently out of date, inaccurate, incomplete in its detail and therefore potentially misleading.

The Department of Home affairs (DOHA) website actively encourages you to lodge your own application, because it knows that it will receive your NON-REFUNDABLE visa application fee, regardless of the quality of your application, and regardless of whether or not it has any chance of success.  The DOHA website quite simply does not:


  • Provide you with all the required information to ensure the best chance of success
  • Clearly explain the risks associated with lodging incomplete applications
  • Provide a detailed assessment of your personal situation
  • Advise on a strategy (short or long term) to achieve your goals
  • Warn of the consequences of a visa refusal
  • Provide ready and direct access to potential applicants via telephone or email
  • Make it clear to you, that it has the right to make a decision on a visa application, based on the information provided by the applicant at the time of lodgement
  • Make it clear to you, that it has no obligation whatsoever to request any additional information, or to request the applicant to provide missing information or documentation.
  • Make it clear to you, that it frequently makes decisions on visa applications on this basis, and naturally, the visas are refused.


Some Assessing Authorities are offering "points assessment advice". BE WARNED AND PLEASE NOTE the advice is not being provided by registered migration agents.  The advice they provide does not:


  • Give due and proper consideration to visa options or appropriateness
  • Give due and proper consideration to your personal circumstances, and/or the appropriate visa strategy for you to pursue 


They do not:


  • Take any responsibility for the impact your skill assessment may have on your visa application or options
  • Work with you from your first enquiry, and through the entire journey, to your visa grant


It is therefore obvious, and I strongly advise that you should treat this freely available information with extreme caution, and resist the temptation of lodging your own application, (including applications for skill assessment).  I also advise that you ignore advice provided by well-meaning friends and relatives, who do not have the qualifications and experience to give such advice.

All application fees paid to these Authorities are non-refundable, and they have no legal liability whatsoever for the information provided.  As an Australian Registered Migration Agent, Graham Paddington does have legal obligation and liability for the information and advice he provides.

Therefore, it is not worth risking a visa rejection because of an application that has been prepared and lodged by someone who does not have the necessary, skills, qualifications and knowledge.  The fees that you pay to a professional and appropriately experienced Australian migration agent, (registered with the OMARA) are an investment, not a waste of money.