The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) is going after backpackers who are ‘buying’ their three months agricultural or regional work.

AN IRISHMAN was recently fined Aus$1,400 (€850) and deported from Australia after being convicted of immigration fraud. He was convicted after admitting he bought employment verification details for a second year working holiday visa (WHV) for $500.

To get a second WHV backpackers must work for three months in agricultural or regional work during their first visa year. But many backpackers, in their anxiety to get the visa without doing the tough work, have risked imprisonment for up to 10 years, and/or a fine of up to $110,000 by claiming they worked on a farm when they did not.

This work is “proved” with the provision of the Australian business number (ABN) of a farmer who has previously hired backpackers, saying you worked there too.

One story doing the rounds of the backpacker community concerns a man, since returned to Ireland, who made tens of thousands of dollars selling ABNs to backpackers desperate to get a second year visa.

Using an alias, he took out adverts on the Gumtree backpacker website under the heading: “2nd year visa, no problem.” A fee of $400 would then be required to be paid directly into his bank account once the visa was granted.

Many thought he was a farm manager, reducing the risk of a comeback should the visa application be randomly checked and denied.

He told clients that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) checked only 10 per cent of second WHV applications. These are done online to ensure details are correct.

A DIAC spokesperson said: “The department has successfully prosecuted an Irish national for second working holiday visa fraud. Another case has recently been accepted by the Commonwealth director of public prosecutions and others are under consideration . . . The department has recently cancelled 32 second working holiday visas in New South Wales on the basis of fraudulent documentation, and refused many applications.”

Billy Cantwell, editor of the Sydney-based Irish Echo newspaper, said stories about getting illegal WHVs are passed around in Irish bars and backpacker hostels.

“It’s very disappointing that Irish nationals have been ripping their own people off,” he said. “Word gets out that there’s a way round the rules and it spreads like bushfire. People do it without thinking of the consequences.

“It would be a dreadful shame if this led to the whole [second WHV] scheme being ditched. It would be a very heavy price to pay if it denied other people a chance to get the visa,” he said.

Despite the risks, many people continue to post on internet sites ways to fraudulently acquire a second WHV.

A DIAC spokesperson confirmed that the department is “closely scrutinising online advertisements offering fraudulent documentation for the purpose of applying for a second working holiday visa”.

Australia is expected to grant 200,000 one-year WHVs this financial year. About 23,000 of these will go to Irish people. Whether fraud affects that number remains to be seen.

This item was obtained from the Irish Times, Wednesday, November 11, 2009. For the full story, visit - http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/1111/1224258549670.html