We legally arrived in Australia & applied for a sc188 Visa (Dad, Mom and Daughter) through an appointed MARA agent. 

We became concerned for various reasons, & asked the agent for contacts for us to be able to check our visa status & progress but were informed that the department would only liaise with the mandated agent. 

The agent (who we paid to take us through to citizenship), changed his e-mail address last year and failed to check that the email change was properly recorded as it would affect our sc188 visa (eg. ensuring the business visa team is directly informed re the change, & form956 uploaded to the Immiaccount), resulting in a major glitch with our visa application. We discovered this recently when we needed to get our daughter onto our medical aid. We notified the agent that for some reason the medical aid company was not able to find her visa on their systems.   This resulted in the shock discovery that our sc188 was refused some 8 months earlier!  A case officer had requested medicals & police checks, clearly shown in Immiaccount but not seen by the agent, who claims he never received email requests! To our horror we have been unlawful! The agent then lodged an AAT review, but outside the prescribed limited time. The AAT returned a ‘no jurisdiction’ outcome, a typical result when an application is lodged outside the 21 days prescribed time. 

We are now having to ask Minister Karen Andrews to intervene on our behalf. We also had to go through a scolding interview with the Department regarding our unlawful status before being granted a limited bridging visa ensuring we are lawful again & can continue our business, but the sc188 refusal stands. 

We truly consider Australia to be our home, have invested everything we own in creating a new life in Australia and are active members of the community.  Please join our call for Minister Andrews to positivity view our appeal and to assist us in making Australia our permanent home. 

In line with our visa regulations, we started a business in Broadbeach, employing Australian staff and suppliers.  My daughter has graduated from Bond University and would love to study her masters at an Australian University.  Our entire lives, including work and study, are on hold until we get a decision from the Minister! 

For Ministerial Intervention we need your support and ask that you support this effort by adding your voice to ours so we can stay. All of this mess is no fault of ours. We satisfied the criteria for the visa but the agent failed to check the Immiaccount on a regular basis & did not ensure his email change was properly recorded. We would have had no problem having the medicals & police checks done, had we known! We thank you for reading our story & supporting us. 

Marion, Christopher & Donna.