Immigrants’ complaints upheld

A complaint against an immigration adviser for allegedly creating false jobs to obtain work or residence visas for his clients has been upheld.

Wellington-based Peter Graham Ryan, sole director of Capital Immigration Services NZ Ltd, was accused of operating paper companies in the IT industry with no real employees, no work and claiming to be linked to a real IT company in Britain.

The Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal upheld the complaints against Ryan.

He denied the claims but offered no explanation or evidence.

One of Ryan’s clients, Karamjeet Singh, who arrived in 2014 as an international student, allegedly paid $35,000 for a job that didn’t exist so he could get a work visa.

Singh’s plight was reported in the media, which prompted an investigation by the Registrar of Immigration Advisers, and complaints against Ryan by both Singh and the registrar were referred to the tribunal.

The registrar’s complaint concerned 17 mainly Indian nationals, all of whom were offered jobs by Bite Consulting NZ, a firm registered under the sole directorship of Ryan’s wife and which claimed to have links with the Bite Consulting Group in Britain.

Tribunal chair David Plunkett found Ryan was the principal party in a scheme to present to Immigration visa applications for foreign nationals based on fraudulent employment.

A separate complaint against Ryan by Singh was similarly upheld. Plunkett dismissed Ryan’s denial of both complaints as not credible.