MARCH 2009 FRAUD SUMMARY - MISSION AUSTRALIA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SYDNEY 000081 DEPT FOR CA/FPP AND CA/VO/KCC POSTS FOR FRAUD PREVENTION MANAGERS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC AS SUBJECT: MARCH 2009 FRAUD SUMMARY - MISSION AUSTRALIA SYDNEY 00000081 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. Country Conditions: Australia is a low-fraud environment for consular services. Local economic and governmental conditions make for a qualified visa applicant pool. Host country identity documents are highly reliable. Challenges in the area of consular work are mostly a result of the growing third-country population, including recently naturalized Australians. Our main concerns with respect to fraud are the H-1B and E-3 visa categories. NONIMMIGRANT VISA (NIV) FRAUD ¶2. Most of the 700,000 Australians who visit the United States each year do so under the Visa Waiver Program. With the many legitimate options available for Australians who wish to work and travel in the United States, NIV fraud is extremely rare. Almost all fraud in NIVs occurs in the applicant pools of third-country nationals and recently naturalized Australians, particularly in the H-1B and E-3 visa categories. The fraud almost always involves U.S.-based companies making job offers for which they do not have a corresponding, qualifying position. ¶3. During the reporting period of September 2008 to February 2009, Mission Australia posts adjudicated a total of 311 H-1B visas. Of these, 61 were refused, a refusal rate of 19%. Prior to officer adjudication, a FPU local staff member screened all third-country national H-1B cases that were not clearly approvable. ¶4. During the reporting period, Mission Australia posts adjudicated a total of 1010 E-3 and E-3R visas, with a refusal rate of 4%. Most of the qualified skilled workers in Australia travel on the E-3 visa rather than the H-1B. Therefore, the refusal rate difference is a reflection of the difference in the education and work experience of the two applicant pools. Some of the refused applicants were of Indian origin who had recently become naturalized Australian citizens, and the bona fides of their respective employers in the United States were not credible. KCC was very helpful in providing research for these cases. IV AND DV FRAUD ¶5. Immigrant Visa fraud in Australia is extremely rare. The quality and reliability of identity documents are excellent. While some K-1 cases involve tenuous relationships developed over the internet, they are, for the most part, legitimate. DV applicants make up 21% of the total IV applicants, and only 26% of allotted DV numbers are actually used in Australia. USE OF DNA TESTING ¶6. DNA testing has rarely been used in Australia, due to the high quality of identity documents. ALIEN SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING, ORGANIZED CRIME, TERRORIST TRAVEL ¶7. Australian government authorities aggressively investigate issues of alien smuggling, trafficking, organized crime, and terrorist travel. As a result, post's main concerns lie in the area of technology transfer. Due to the large number of Chinese and Indian applicants, the Australia posts submit a relatively large number of Mantis SAOs. ¶8. Mission consular sections have cooperated with LegAtt on potential applicants of concern in all of these areas, particularly in the areas of trafficking and organized crime. DS CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS ¶9. There have been no recent DS criminal fraud investigations in Australia involving consular matters. HOST COUNTRY DOCUMENTS ¶10. The Australian government is committed to deterring the misuse and/or counterfeiting of Australian passports and identity documents. Given a relatively small population of approximately 20 million combined with isolated geography, the Australian government is able to effectively monitor and control identity documents. ¶11. The one area in which occasional fraudulent Australian documents have been reported is that of false visas. These visas are most often used in building an applicant's credibility to obtain a visa to a third country, such as the United States or Canada. Post has worked with the Australian government authorities in order to be better able to identify these forgeries. STAFFING AND TRAINING SYDNEY 00000081 002.2 OF 002 ¶12. Using H&L funding, Melbourne has hired, and Sydney is currently working on advertising for, a part time LES who will conduct fraud investigations. Several LES have attended FSI courses on Fraud Prevention. DEPARTMENT RESOURCES ¶13. Mission Australia continues to find the background work on petitioners by the KCC Fraud Prevention Unit to be invaluable. ADIS is another development that greatly assists in fraud detection and prevention, particularly for immigrant visa applicants who have previously overstayed on a nonimmigrant visa. Consular Officers have recently begun to use the Edison Travel Document database in the CCD to identify legitimate documents. COOPERATION WITH HOST AND OTHER GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES ¶14. Appropriate information sharing with valuable anti-fraud contacts at all levels helps to ensure that Australia remains a low-fraud post. Post continues to receive updates from the Australian government and other allies regarding fraud that they are encountering. ¶15. On a quarterly basis, Sydney Consulate staff continue to meet with counterparts from various Australian government agencies, as well as the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, as part of the 5 Nation Anti-Fraud Working Group. In these meetings, participants share information on trends in immigration fraud and border issues. The productive relationship results in extensive information sharing and useful contacts with Australian law enforcement and immigration authorities. FERGIN