How do you manage immigration compliance? Chances are, like 90% of Australian businesses, you are using a mixture of internal spreadsheets and a few work-arounds in your HR system to track visa expiry dates and a few other key requirements.

Experience tells us that very few organisations are fully compliant with Australian immigration laws. Why? Because immigration law is complex, obligations differ between visa holders, and there haven’t been any systems on the market designed to support end-to-end immigration compliance.

Getting serious about immigration compliance

It’s time to get serious about immigration compliance. Why? Because the penalties can include fines, civil and criminal charges (including personal liability for directors) and long-term brand damage (cough, cough).

But wait, it gets worse. Liability for your organisation’s today will last 7 years. Like most other things in the Australian legal system, liability for wrongdoing has a way of hanging around long term. That means that your organisation could be on the hook for any current failure to meet immigration compliance commitments for a long time to come.

So how do we fix it?

Talk to someone who knows about immigration law. That could be an immigration lawyer, a migration agent, or us. People who are accredited to work in immigration law can advise on how to set up the right systems and processes in your organisation to manage compliance with three separate immigration compliance regimes.

So should we use a lawyer or agent?

Lawyers and agents are great! Just ask us, we know because we are immigration lawyers. But the thing about implementing a compliance system with immigration lawyers or agents is that they typically charge by the hour. Setting up an immigration compliance system is not easy – there are a whole bunch of systems and processes that need to be implemented, training that needs to be delivered, resources required for internal stakeholders. Getting this put in place by immigration lawyers is likely going to be very expensive. Realistically it is likely going to costs tens of thousands to set up, and then you are likely going to need ongoing support and assistance, which could set you back thousands more.

Why use Complize?

With our immigration lawyer hats on, we looked at the immigration compliance regime and the lack of compliance among Australian organisations. It was a lightbulb moment.  We realised that software was the best solution. With software we can set up the automated workflows that your organisation needs to manage immigration. We can provide a detailed immigration library and up to date resources for your organisation to access the most current information and the right documents to manage things internally. All for a low cost, per person, per year.

What’s more, the system saves you time – rather than relying on outdated spreadsheets and manual visa checking, everything is automated to facilitate compliance and visa holder management.

The Complize platform includes:

Workforce:  End-to-end employee life-cycle management for temporary visa holders. This includes record management for temporary visa holders from employee onboarding, automated work rights verification, automated compliance notifications to Home Affairs, guided self-audit function, through to offboarding.

Knowledge: Up to date resources to enable HR and other business stakeholders to understand and apply immigration requirements internally. The immigration guides are maintained in real time by experienced immigration lawyers.

Training: Online 10 compliance certification modules for employees and contractors of the organisation. These modules are designed to be completed on an annual basis and targeted to different staff profiles including visa holders, line managers, and HR.

Using a cloud-based toolkit such as Complize will save time and money, ensure end-to-end immigration compliance organisation, and prevent liability for you and the business.

Contact us now to request a demo regarding Complize software.

Authors: TJ & Jackson Taylor