When Nisha and Eshwar stumbled throughout a Fb web page full of feedback from individuals claiming to have been scammed, they felt an prompt sense of dread.
In January, the couple paid $11,000 — an quantity that had taken them years to save lots of — to an organization they believed to be a number one migration consultancy: My Ambition Consulting.
In alternate, the corporate’s managing director assured the couple, who share a visa, that they’d obtain a name from an employer keen to sponsor them for everlasting residency in Australia.
However weeks handed and the decision by no means got here.
“We had been scared,” says Eshwar, who additionally claims the method didn’t pan out the best way they thought it might.
We realised that we acquired trapped right into a rip-off and it has occurred to many individuals.
Too good to be true
The couple’s ordeal began in late 2023 when Nisha was focused by advertisements for My Ambition Consulting on social media.
The corporate’s slickly produced movies clarify completely different visa choices, boasting about how the corporate will facilitate functions and join expert employees with employers for an “employer-sponsored visa”.
For Nisha, who migrated to Australia from Nepal six years in the past, it was a gorgeous proposition. The 27-year-old has been working within the aged care sector whereas learning on a pupil visa, however her final dream is to turn into a nurse.
With dwelling prices biting and her working hours restricted by her visa circumstances, Nisha and her husband Eshwar determined to ebook an appointment with My Ambition.
The couple say they had been charged an preliminary consultancy payment of $100 to fulfill with the corporate’s managing director Abhinaya Bhandari in January.
Nisha says her dealings with My Ambition have brought about ongoing stress. Credit score: SBS
Whereas My Ambition Consulting lists registered migration brokers on its web site, and in its contracts, Bhandari shouldn’t be a registered agent, which implies legally he can not present migration recommendation.
SBS Information shouldn’t be suggesting that Bhandari illegally offered migration recommendation. Nevertheless, emails to shoppers despatched by Bhandari, which SBS Information has sighted, embody a disclaimer that “any migration recommendation within the above e-mail has been mentioned and subsequently accepted by our certified migration brokers”.
Like Nisha and Eshwar, Bhandari can be from Nepal. The pair describe him as a “charming” man who immediately established rapport with them, going so far as to say he thought-about them “like household”.
However the price of the corporate’s providers was past their price range.
“It isn’t a small quantity, it is $11,000. It actually issues for us,” Nisha says.
“We now have to pay all the things right here like school charges, lease, payments, groceries and all the things. And we hardly save [any] cash.”
Because the couple contemplated the choice, workers from My Ambition began calling them nearly hourly, telling them they wanted to behave rapidly to safe their place and that spots had been filling up.
Not desirous to miss out, the couple handed over their financial savings; a choice they are saying has now left them in a deep melancholy.
‘He performed with our feelings’
After paying the payment and signing a consumer service settlement, Nisha and Eshwar rapidly realised one thing was fallacious.
The phrases of the consumer service settlement issued to Nisha and Eshwar embody the broad provision of “migration recommendation and visa choices” and help with finishing related visa utility paperwork required by the Division of Immigration.
It notes that the corporate can not assure the success of an utility and that finally the choice rests with the division.
Nevertheless, beneath its refund coverage, the settlement stipulates that My Ambition will prepare three interviews with potential employers for “potential sponsorship” and that if the consumer is unsuccessful in all three, they are going to be eligible for a full refund.
When after eight weeks, the corporate nonetheless had not fulfilled the phrases of the settlement, the couple confronted Bhandari and requested for a refund. He agreed to pay again $10,500 and despatched the couple a screenshot of a financial institution switch purporting to be the refund — however the cash by no means appeared of their account.
When Nisha and Eshwar questioned why they nonetheless hadn’t acquired the cash days later, Bhandari suggested them he had cancelled the refund as a result of the coverage solely applies after three months and as a substitute, he urged a gathering. Nisha and Eshwar reluctantly agreed to fulfill however Bhandari was a no-show.
Nisha and Eshwar are among the many greater than 70 individuals who declare they’re owed cash by My Ambition. Credit score: SBS
In July, after the three-month window had lapsed, the couple determined to take the matter to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which dominated My Ambition Consulting should pay again the total $11,000 on the idea of the uncompleted contract for providers.
However the couple say they’ve nonetheless not acquired a cent.
“Emotionally, psychologically, [Bhandari] performed with our emotions, with our feelings; our brains,” Eshwar says.
We had been completely damaged … we’re nonetheless depressed and haven’t slept to today. We would like justice.
SBS Information contacted Bhandari for remark however he declined to reply. Questions despatched by way of his lawyer had been additionally declined.
False guarantees
SBS Information is conscious of greater than 70 individuals who say they’re owed refunds by My Ambition Consulting.
NSW Truthful Buying and selling has confirmed it’s investigating the corporate for allegedly accepting fee and failing to provide providers in any respect or in an inexpensive time.
“NSW Truthful Buying and selling has acquired 28 complaints about My Ambition Consulting since December 2023,” a spokesperson instructed SBS Information.
Tala, whose title has been modified for privateness, first got here throughout My Ambition Consulting in early 2022 whereas struggling to discover a job in Melbourne post-COVID.
Initially from the Philippines, Tala got here to Australia in 2018 on a pupil visa. A yr later, she was capable of carry her then three-year-old daughter to stay together with her as a dependent however struggled to safe college enrolment for her 10-year-old. To today, her eldest daughter stays within the Philippines.
When Tala acquired a quote from My Ambition for its providers, she initially had reservations. However she agreed to pay the charges after Bhandari assured her that his firm would join her with an employer who wouldn’t solely sponsor her but in addition her husband and two kids.
“Once we signed up with this in 2022, we [were] so enthusiastic about it and had been so completely satisfied as a result of lastly we’ll be collectively,” Tala says.
Then when the nomination was refused, it gave me a lot stress.
Tala and her household had been ready for a response from the Division of Immigration for a yr earlier than the applying submitted by My Ambition was finally refused.
Fed up with the method, Tala began to seek for different avenues on-line when she got here throughout the identical Fb group later found by Nisha and Eshwar.
After studying testimonies posted by former shoppers of My Ambition, Tala determined to hunt authorized recommendation and was capable of acquire the explanations as to why her nomination was refused.
SBS has seen that doc, which outlines important errors within the utility paperwork ready by My Ambition, together with the absence of an employment contract. Tala says she was despatched a contract by way of My Ambition providing employment as an accountant with Statewide Cranes, which she signed and returned.
SBS Information contacted Statewide Cranes to make clear whether or not it had provided employment to anybody in search of an employer-sponsored visa. A spokesperson instructed SBS Information that employment has by no means been provided on this foundation however declined to substantiate this in writing.
In August 2023, Bhandari despatched Tala a letter, which SBS Information has sighted, promising to refund her $32,000 inside 30 days. The refund was by no means acquired.
Together with funds to the division and to a lawyer, who Tala engaged to assist recoup funds from My Ambition, Tala has spent greater than $50,000 since first assembly with Bhandari. She is but to obtain any a refund from him.
Tala says the worst half is the best way it is impacted her relationship together with her husband and household.
“[My daughter in the Philippines] is definitely not conscious of what’s occurring,” Tala says.
She stored on asking me ‘When am I going to go [to Australia]? What is occurring? Are you continue to going to get me?’
“[My mum] thinks that we’re simply ready for the visa approval and it is taking eternally for Immigration to approve the visa as a result of I haven’t got the braveness to inform her that that is occurring. I do not know methods to say it even, and I do not know methods to begin.”
Tala has but to be reunited together with her eldest daughter, who stays dwelling with household within the Philippines. Credit score: SBS
Livelihoods at stake
Beneath Australian federal regulation, solely registered migration brokers, authorized practitioners or exempt individuals may give immigration help. The penalty for unlawfully offering immigration help could be as much as 10 years imprisonment.
Simon Sen Tao is a registered migration agent who has freelanced for the previous 12 years. In early 2023, he says he was invited by Bhandari to work as an in-house migration agent for My Ambition Consulting, which he agreed to.
Tao says the corporate was scuffling with lots of its visa functions being rejected, and he was requested to assist prepare different brokers to enhance outcomes.
He says he was shocked to obtain a name in late 2023 from a lawyer performing on behalf of a consumer who was pursuing authorized motion towards the corporate. He later discovered his image had been shared among the many Fb group of claimants labelling him as a “scammer”.
Simon Sen Tao ended his skilled relationship with My Ambition after he discovered {that a} consumer was pursuing authorized motion towards the consultancy. Credit score: SBS
“It created extreme complications and stress,” Tao says.
“I’ve to elucidate to my enterprise associates, present shoppers, and even my members of the family who noticed my image on-line. I’ve to elucidate to them what is going on on.”
Tao says he instantly ended his relationship with My Ambition Consulting and reported the corporate to the Migration Brokers Registration Authority (MARA). SBS Information contacted MARA to substantiate whether or not the case stays open however they declined to touch upon its standing.
That is my livelihood. I do not wish to put it at stake. I do not need my registration to be suspended.
Simon Sen Tao
On the time of writing, Tao’s photograph and MARA quantity are nonetheless listed on My Ambition Consulting’s web site.
A spokesperson for the Division of Dwelling Affairs defined in an announcement to SBS Information that the division pursues disciplinary motion when it finds a registered or former migration agent has breached MARA’s Code of Conduct or is in any other case not match to supply immigration help.
“The Workplace of the Migration Brokers Registration Authority is dedicated to safeguarding the integrity of the migration recommendation career by taking motion towards registered migration brokers whose conduct undermines the requirements anticipated of the trade,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Susceptible shoppers exploited
Immigration lawyer Christopher Levingston says Tala, Nisha and Eshwar’s experiences should not remoted. He believes that the complexity of Australia’s authorized system has lengthy been taken benefit of by individuals who goal migrants in lots of different circumstances.
“They’re usually group fixers and so they function because the go-betweens between the candidates and the chance, which can or will not be realised,” Levingston says.
“It is fraud: that is what it actually boils right down to.”
Over his 35 years practising immigration regulation, Levingston says there’s been an absence of motion from the Commonwealth relating to pursuing and prosecuting dangerous actors.
Official recommendation is to at all times verify whether or not somebody providing migration recommendation is a registered agent. Nevertheless, even that does not assure reliability and investigations by MARA could be sluggish, says Helen Duncan, CEO of the Migration Institute of Australia.
Key issues to be careful for embody extreme charges and guarantees to help with issues past immigration.
“In order quickly as somebody says, ‘Should you give me a sure amount of cash, I’ll discover you a job’, then alarm bells ought to actually begin ringing,” Duncan says.
“That is not the work of a migration agent for one factor, and in addition it isn’t one thing in recruitment that ought to occur.”
It is a lesson Nisha and Eshwar say they’ve learnt the exhausting means. They’re now warning others to keep away from speeding into any selections that contain migration brokers.
Eshway says: “Whoever says that they are going to discover a sponsor for you, they’re scammers I say … they’re simply making an attempt to steal your cash.”
— This story was produced in collaboration with Abhas Parajuli of SBS Nepali.
