My Story

Like many international students, I arrived in Sydney, Australia with no housing arrangement and no idea what to expect in a new country. My student work permit gave me authorization to work 20 hours each week during the semester, while enrolled in an English Language Course. I later realized my passport number was incorrectly entered on my visa label due to human error; since the passport was handwritten & a straight line was drawn across the number 5 to make it look like a 8. Upon visiting the immigration office for correction, an immigration officer granted me a new student visa with the correct passport number after approximately an hour of interviewing.

Additionally, I was told that I must enroll in university after completing a vocational program in Sydney to be able to meet my visa conditions because i was granted a visa with subclass 573 for the Melbourne campus, 872 km away from Sydney. I raised the matter with the international student advisor after consulting immigration experts to avoid higher education in different city but it was complicated, as changing an education provider was subject to a new onshore student visa subclass 572 application with risk to current visa. Luckily, my college lost partnership agreement with the university after 4 months of my enrolment and college issued me a new confirmation of enrolment (C.O.E) after paying additional semester fee with release letter from the university program before the first semester break.

story doesn't end here ...

The college went bankrupt during the semester break holidays, leaving me & other 822 students on the streets without being enrolled in any educational institution. The academic record was seized by the Australian Council for Private Education and Training. I got very frustrated & decided to move to Brisbane Queensland while the (ACPET) officials were investigating the bankruptcy matter. After numerous efforts, I enrolled in demand list course with months of delay by paying fee again to new college with previous credit transfer.

I walked in to the immigration office again in Brisbane to update new C.O.E and was interviewed for hours by group of 3 immigration officers for not attending college for months and after a long day investigation and background check, the immigration officers accepted me as bona fide international student for further studies. Finally, I graduated and applied for the temporary graduate visa and received (bridging visa A) then I received Australian permanent residency status followed by Australian Citizenship after 9 years of landing in Australia before immigrating to Canada as landed Canadian permanent resident in 2013. I now hold Indian, Australian & Canadian Citizenship & i dont need any visa to enter approx. 150 countries in the world.

I grew up in Australia, having appeared 22 times in English language proficiency exams and number of times immigration and border security interviews with Australian, American, Canadian, Indian and other authorities during the study, travel, immigration and CICC licensing process. I enjoy exploring different cultures and have traveled to China, Dubai, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Philippine, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, USA, and now happily settled in Edmonton (Alberta) Canada. I enjoy working with people from all over the world to help them achieve their immigration goals.