Data Matching System to Prevent Fraudulent Partner Visas!

The Department of Immigration & Border Protection has joined forces with the Department of Human Services which will allow the two departments to cross-check records to find inconsistencies across the various records held on file.

This could have a negative impact on fraudsters providing false documents to either of the Departments.

An example of this would be a person claiming welfare payments as ‘singles’ while sponsoring their partners for residency in Australia.

The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton said:

“Last year, my department identified an increase in the number of allegations relating to the facilitating of contrived marriages,” he said adding, “This data-matching program is part of a whole-of-government approach to fraud detection and prevention…“People who deliberately take advantage of Australia’s welfare and migration system will be caught.”

Applications such as Partner/Spouse visa applications will be checked against an estimated 7 Million records held by the Deparment of Human Services.

The Herald Sun, reported that in the last 3 years, more than 750 visas have been cancelled or refused due to breaches of visa conditions such as making bogus claims, providing false or incorrect information, and/or being of bad character.

These numbers are now set to rise, with the new power force of the combined Department of Immigration & Border Protection and the Department of Human Services joining forces to catch ‘fraudsters’.