Correspondence from the Office of the
Immigration Services Commissioner
I am pleased to report that since submitting
that evidence there have been a number of positive developments
in how the UK Border Agency is working with the OISC.
Since July, various members of my Office have had
several meetings with senior UKBA officials resulting in assurances
being given by UKBA that they will involve the OISC more closely
in the policy and operational development of the Points Based
System (PBS). This has been borne out by consultation on documentation
about the implementation of Tier 4.
In July, the OISC could not access the application
form for those seeking to become an authorised sponsor unless
it registered as an applicant to be a sponsor, despite the form
containing references to how the OISC regulates immigration advisers.
Nor could we gain access to the identity of immigration advisers
that authorised sponsors had indicated on the application form
that they would be using to assist them in obtaining certificates
of sponsorship. These representatives should all be authorised
by the OISC or by one of the designated professional bodies. I
am pleased to report that we now have easy access to both of these
documents. The latter should assist us in evidencing future prosecutions.
My Office has been able to use the meetings
with UKBA to emphasise the important and continuing need for regulated
immigration advisers, not least because PBS will affect only about
40% of the immigration advice provided. As we expected, the number
of organisations the OISC regulates currently shows no sign of
reducing. This would be consistent with the previous experience
of the Canadian and Australian regulators, CSIC and MARA, following
the introduction in their respective countries of an equivalent
PBS.
I am also pleased to report that, with UKBA's
knowledge and backing, good progress is being made with those
regulators in creating an international federation of immigration
regulators, and that discussions have started on how that network
might be used as a means of producing a cross-border "accreditation"
scheme of adviser fitness.
February 2009
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