3 STEPS HELP YOU AVOID BEING CHEATED BY A LAWYER OR IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY

Generally, lacking knowledge in-laws of immigration is the main reason that leads most of the clients to look for immigration attorneys or educational representatives. Therefore,  this reason is the weakness that the fake or cheating lawyers use to convince their customers. Others also insist on the lacking of confidence in language and clients’ reliance for fraudulent purposes.

Honestly, agent or lawyer is a perfectly reasonable choice if you do not understand the law well or want to save time. However, the identity of the agent or lawyer needs to be understood well enough at first in order to get more objective and multi-dimensional view of your decisions.

According to Leo Vuong from S&W Consulting Group, there are normally 3 ways to help clients avoid being cheated by lawyers:

• Getting references from their existing and current customers: you can ask friends, check directly on agent’s website or even search on Google.
• Getting information from government searching services: 

There are official searching sites certified by the Department of Immigration to help certify registered and government-qualified agents (Agent test for education – http://eatc.com/qualified_agents/index.html).

For example, when searching for an agent with the required qualifications and permission, you will find the keyword “agent”, which will result in: DUONG VUONG | S & W Consulting Group – Melbourne | www.sweducation.com.au | Qualification: #QEAC F285 – 2010-08-17

Check agent for settlement array (https://www.mara.gov.au/).For instance, when searching for a ‘Lam’ agent named ‘Andie’ in ‘NSW’, the result would be:

Given Name: Andie Minh | Family Name: Lam | Business: ANDIE LAM LAWYERS

Suburb: BANKSTOWN | State: NSW | Country: Australia

Check out a licensed lawyer/law firm in New South Wales (https://www.lawsociety.com.au/community/findingalawyer/findalawyersearch/index.htm)

Check out lawyers licensed to practice in Victoria (https://www.liv.asn.au/Specialists)

• Looking for necessary information from Australian Government’s Website (http://www.australia.gov.au/)

In conclusion, there are many victims have fallen into the trap of fake lawyers or migration agents which leads to the loss of money and unfinished records. Moreover, some clients are denied or deported due to failure to comply with the Department of Immigration requirements. Therefore, you should at least check and search before asking someone to represent on behalf of you for legal and immigration procedures.

Source: SBS Vietnamese