The NZ High Court has issued an interim injunction against Indian-based Swastik Solution a website designer apparently working with unlicensed Indian immigration advisers and travel agents, selling false visas to NZ.
Immigration scams are not only happening in India, but have involved false visas from the Pacific Islands, illegal visas issued by NZ Maori as a statement of Maori national sovereignty and less recently, buy-a-bride scams.
This latest website scam appears to give official approval to false visas and when worked with unlicensed advisers and travel agents, would appear to be amongst the more sophisticated. As usual, it is corrupt business people feeding off the hopes and dreams of either the gullible or the dishonest and may possibly be part of a people smuggling ring.
What the victims don’t understand is that they not only lose their money, but if they attempt to use their false visas, the will be flagged on the INZ systems and the attempt to cheat their way into NZ, could result in them being banned form ever coming here, or to other countries with which NZ shares border information.
That would be a huge price to pay for attempting to cheat the immigration process.
If you need help with a visa, use a specialist immigration lawyer, a licensed immigration adviser or a registered travel agent. Yes it might cost more than a false visa, but not as much as the cost of being banned.
This post is commentary to an article available on Stuff.co.nz