An immigration service with an unmarked and unoccupied office in the heart of Canberra has been accused of cheating an American applicant of $28,000.
Cincinnati man Jason Schnur met his future wife, Sydneysider Phoebe Cater, when they were swimmers at Ohio State University.
The couple decided to marry and close the distance last year when Mr Schnur - who has only been to Australia twice - fell in love with the culture and environment.
Mr Schnur, a full-time project manager in construction, had money saved and felt "the best solution" for him would be to use an Australian immigration agent.
However, in an ill-fated search for help, the American lost $US18,460 USD and is still without a visa or a path to recover the money.
"It was very sick," he told The Canberra Times, describing the alleged ruse lasting eight months.
'Ghost' office in Canberra
Mr Schnur alleged ICAustralia, who came up as the first result when he searched on Google, took advantage of his "trusting nature" by guaranteeing their experts would handle the visa process.
The company's website, filled with stock images, states it is owned by Worldmigration Ltd with offices in the ACT and Porto, Portugal.
At the time of writing, ICAustralia's location on Moore Street in Canberra's CBD had no signage or branding in the building's reception area, upper levels, or anywhere publicly accessible.
A receptionist at Regus, the agency renting out offices in the building, said ICAustralia was a client with an office big enough for three to five employees. They also said the office was usually vacant unless they had appointments with clients.
Additionally, ICAustralia's listed contact numbers are answered by a recorded message or a request to check the number.
When he requested a callback to inquire about agents, Mr Schnur said a "scammer" with a British accent was welcoming and eloquent.
"Everyone that I spoke to was very well-spoken," he said. "They explained the whole [immigration process] and it really put me at ease."
ICAustralia was contacted for comment but failed to respond in time for publication.
Operating under 'false names'
In emails viewed by this masthead, ICAustralia informed Mr Schnur they subcontracted "advisors", "consultants", or "agents" registered with an official Australian government department - Office of Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA).
Emma Wilson, a senior account executive at ICAustralia, and Emily Green from their immigration team requested that he submit numerous documents including work history, identity proofs and English test results.
Neither were registered with OMARA and Mr Schnur believes their names were simply made up.
Between April and November 2023, they invoiced Mr Schnur for payments between $A1000 to $A11,000 for an online evaluation, filing documents and approving his intention to submit an application for a "Skilled Independent Visa".
Mr Schnur said he only the doubted company after a call from a "pushy lady" who emailed him an invoice for about $A9000 AUD and stated the next thing he would pay for would be his airline ticket.
"At this point, my stomach just sank," he said.
"I was like these guys are not legitimate and then I didn't pay. I asked, 'Can I just hold on it?' She just says, 'Nope, this this needs to be done today'.
"I started frantically searching and just spiralling ... There's no individual phone numbers. I even researched all the names that I came into contact with, there's no LinkedIn, there's no social media profile, there's nothing, so it's all just false names."
Trustpilot reviews for ICAustralia range from five stars for a "clear and effective" visa process to one-star ratings which warn the "fraud" firm is "destroying lives".
A 2023 Reddit thread also contains tens of users detailing their encounters with ICAustralia where they claim to have lost large amounts of money.
Taking action against 'scammers'
In December 2023, Mr Schnur reported ICAustralia to American authorities and his credit card company but did not recover payments beyond 60 days old.
When his bank raised a dispute with ICAustralia, the company contacted Mr Schnur to say they would give him a 10 per cent refund along with their OMARA registration number. He said they didn't provide either.
One ICAustralia response stated: "... it is clear that our company is in the right and we will win this commercial dispute and you will just be at an additional loss ..."
Mr Schnur said attempts to file a complaint with OMARA were futile since the company nor its employees were registered agents. Access Canberra also noted concerns about the Moore Street business and suggested reporting it to SCAMwatch.
"I basically didn't save any money that I could have," Mr Schnur said.
"I was getting married ... I wanted to buy a house. I wanted to move over to Australia and be with my wife. Not having that money really delayed it."
Government failing to properly regulate agents
In an Australian National Audit Office report released last month, Home Affairs' regulation of migration agents was labelled "not effective". It reported only 9 per cent of 299 complaints against registered agents in 2022-23 were actioned.
The findings follow commissioner Christine Nixon's 2023 review into exploitation of Australia's visa system which revealed "grotesque abuses" of those seeking immigration assistance.
In the span of five months, a multi-agency taskforce Operation Inglenook found 57 alerts raised against such exploitation and 175 people who could be complicit, including 93 foreigners.
The Nixon Review made 12 recommendations including:
- making it compulsory for overseas migration agents to register with OMARA (similar to New Zealand and Canada)
- higher financial penalties for not disclosing client representation (current penalty can be up to $16,500)
Minister for Immigration Andrew Giles was contacted for comment. A Department of Home Affairs spokesperson responded saying they could not comment on individual cases.
"Providers of immigration assistance who practice solely outside Australia are not within Australia's jurisdiction and do not have to be registered with the OMARA. Such agents are able to act on behalf of visa applicants," they said.
The spokesperson did not respond to ICAustralia having a Canberra office address. Additionally, the department's Border Watch program did not have data about the extent of migration-related scams, neither did SCAMwatch.
A 2002 survey is reportedly the latest available data which showed, on average, 40 percent of migration agents dealt with were unregistered (includes overseas agents).
