X.Death of the Agent

At the start of January 2011, Bert sent a greeting. I greeted back and along is a follow up on our application. He said he will just give me info when he has one. Even way back, I had an idea that our license in Philippines is not accepted elsewhere and that we can only work as tradesmen if we migrate, or even just work, in other country.

Believing that the chance of getting a positive result is high, I grabbed the chance when another employer asked me to work for them as an automation engineer. This is a specialised job and would be beneficial if experience from it is carried to Australia than as Project Engineer. (Learned later that working as a tradesman also needed a license and can be obtained even before migrating)

After some more months, there were no updates from him so I sent him an email. Thinking he was busy, I gave him time. But after 2 weeks, I gave him a ring on his main phone line, then the other line and did not make contact with him. Got busy with my application with the other company and I know he was doing he job, more time was given.

After 2 months, working for the other company happened and after settling in, I remembered my application. I gave Bert a ring but have the same result. I also called my wife to tell her what is happening and told her that I hope nothing happened to him as I did not have any doubts that he will back out on me (considering payments have been paid in full already).

I "googled" him and was surprised by the sad news. It was August then and Bert had died a month before - while I was planning to working with the current company then. I was devastated as I do not have an idea what to do and have tried to contact the immigration office before but they said they will only talk to my agent as I used one.

There was an autoreponder to emails but none was sent to me. In the article, the reply to mails going to his email was:“Due to his passing, any matters regarding Immigration will need to go to the Australian Immigration Office,” I did my research and fortunately contacted the right person and by filling up some forms, I got to continue my application


Previous blogs:
I.The opportunity
II.Initial preparations
III.Agent Wanted
IV.Initial Assessment
V.Start of Application – Fees
VI.Application – Instructions
VII.Application – Batch 1
VIII.Assessment Result
IX.Second Batch