Immigration agent farmed out work to unlicensed staff and people from another company

Complaint against immigration adviser Khieng Chiv concerns seven clients from the Philippines. Photo / File.

An immigration adviser has been censured and fined $7000 for multiple serious breaches of the Immigration Advisers Code of Conduct.

Khieng Chiv, also known as Kevin, a director of NZ Success Immigration Ltd has also been barred from reapplying for a licence for a year by the Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal.

The tribunal last month upheld a complaint that largely involved seven of Chiv's clients who were mainly from the Philippines, six of whom were offered employment in companies he owned.

But it was found that Chiv had unlawfully farmed the immigration work to unlicensed staff and unlicensed people from another company.

"The evidence of personal engagement of the clients by Mr Chiv was minimal," the tribunal said in its decision.

The tribunal also found that he had breached client confidentiality through the practice of communicating en masse with them as a group.

"This was patently a breach of each client's confidentiality and contrary to the fundamental obligation to keep his clients' circumstances strictly confidential," it said.

Sixteen work visa applications for the seven and other clients filed by Chiv, himself a migrant from Cambodia, had been unsuccessful because he had filed them with invalid documents, including out-of-date certificates.

The tribunal found he was "neither professional nor diligent" in his dealings, and that he had also failed to provide his clients with written confirmation as required.

"Mr Chiv has been found to have breached a number of fundamental obligations of an adviser. The wrongdoing is systemic," tribunal chair David Plunkett said.

Plunkett said Chiv had shown a lack of understanding of his obligations and also failed to acknowledge his wrongdoing.

He said also that Chiv had given the tribunal no confidence that he had learned anything as a result of this complaint.

"There remains a risk that he will return to his unprofessional practices once he is able to renew his licence," Plunkett said.

Chiv was ordered to undertake further training, and complete the full Graduate Diploma in NZ Immigration Advice from Toi-Ohomai Institute of Technology before he could reapply for his licence.

He has not been licensed since December 2017 after the Immigration Advisers Authority refused to renew his licence.

Plunkett said Chiv's most serious misconduct was the unlawful delegation of client engagement to unlicensed people, which is also known as "rubber stamping".

Chiv's response to the tribunal was a one sentence email from his counsel on November 12 requesting a minimum sanction by way of a relevant re-education or refresher course.

Plunkett said the breaches were not isolated incidents, and given the multiple serious breaches that Chiv had failed to acknowledge or remedy, a further period of probation was warranted.

Chiv could have been fined up to $10,000 and prohibited from reapplying for a licence for up to two years.