What international body would one go to file a case against Australian Immigration? I have a situation with Australian immigration that sounds like a cheap scam... Immigration process goes as follows, you submit documents to one of agencies that are appointed by the Australian government, in my case ACS (Australian Computer Society), and based on paperwork provided they give you certain amount of points. Then you go to SkillSelect where you again submit documents and they show you how many points you have... then you have to pay application fee, for me it was 7800AUD (~6k$)... Then you need to submit documents again to Immigration and they can give you radically different points... which exactly happened to me... There is mechanism to ask for your application money back which I submitted but let's say they refuse to give the money back, which from my interaction with them so far feels that they might... which international agency should I turn to to take them to court? What international body would one go to file a case against Australian Immigration?
No international body has jurisdiction Australia is a sovereign nation which means it has sole jurisdiction over its immigration policy. So, short answer: no international body has jurisdiction. Who does have jurisdiction? As it seems that the decision made is that the points you have been assessed by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) have not met the amount required in their invitation to you. If you wish to dispute this decision the correct venues are, in order, Informal dispute resolution with DIBP - i.e. ask them for their reasoning. Formal dispute resolution with DIBP Review of the decision by the Migration and Refugee Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal A case in the Federal Court starting with the Federal Circuit Court and working your way up Appeal to the Minister for Immigration The role of Australian Computer Society (ACS) and DIBP You are mistaken in thinking that these organisations do the same thing: they actually have totally different roles in the process and as far as I can see they have both discharged them appropriately. ACS is tasked with assessing your foreign qualifications and experience. They have done this and they state that your qualifications meet the requirements for a Developer Programmer. They make no statements that you will qualify for immigration, indeed their website specifically says: Applicants must have a clear understanding of their personal visa requirements as set by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) or should obtain professional assistance from a Registered Migration Agent (MARA) before applying for an ICT skill assessment. If you had received your qualifications at an Australian university and your experience was in Australia, this step would not have been necessary. In a completely separate process, you have put in an expression of interest with DIBP. DIBP have invited you to apply and would have specified the points total you needed to meet. With everything you provided, including ACS assessment of your qualifications, DIBP has assessed your application and found that you did not meet the requirements that they set for you. You are not entitled to a refund of the application fee: that's whay its called an application fee and not a success fee: you pay the fee to make the application. DIBP have done all that the law required of them and, as a government body performing a government duty, your relationship is not contractual so you have no grounds to sue for it. Where you went wrong On the face of it, your self-assessment of your points seems wrong to me based on what you have posted. For example, you have given yourself 5 points for having a post graduate Specialist Education Qualification - that is a Masters by research or a PhD in one of the nominated areas (Computer Science is one). ACS have equated your qualifications to a Bachelors degree - this doesn't cut it. You have also claimed 5 points for the Australian Study requirement. Have you actually studied for 2 years in Australia? On the other hand, assuming you have certified experience of between 3 and 5 years from ACS (I can only see 11 months in the letter but there may be more that you didn't post) you should have got 5 points for that. You may be entitled to 55 points but probably not more than that. It may not be too late to amend your application but you should hire a migration agent now to help you do this. However, if you don't qualify, you don't qualify and your money is gone. Skillselect Terms of Service The terms of service that you agreed to include: That the Department of Immigration and Border Protection is not liable for the completeness or accuracy of any information provided by me where I do not provide information that is true and correct in all respects. That the Department of Immigration and Border Protection accepts no responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of any of the information contained on or accessed through this website including SkillSelect and makes no representations about its suitability for any particular purpose. I should make my own judgement about these matters. That to the extent permitted by law, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection is not liable for my loss, expense or damage arising from my access and use of, or reliance on, the information contained on or accessed through this website whether or not caused by any negligence on the part of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection or its agents. As previously mentioned, you do not have a contract with DIBP and are therefore not protected by Australian Consumer Law and have limited, if any, access to negligence law. If you can demonstrate that DIBP were grossly or recklessly negligent you might have a case for reimbursement. However, they did tell you not to rely on anything they said and that you should seek your own legal advice.
Dress respectably. Don't forget any documents (either those that support your explanation, or that you might have been instructed to bring). Printed Emails are fine unless you have been instructed otherwise. Arrive at the court on time and prepared to follow instructions and be respectful. Beyond that nobody expects that someone entering a magisterial court for the first time will be familiar with customs or process. If you're sitting in the wrong place, not standing at the right time, or touching something you're not supposed to, then a court officer will tell you; just follow directions and it's no problem. Address officers as "sir" or "ma'am" unless they ask you to call them something else. If you have a question ask any officer. If you are unsure of what is going on &ndash; what you are being charged with, what is at stake, what the purpose of the hearing is &ndash; then call the court ahead of time and ask. It sounds like this is an administrative issue and the only thing at stake is a few hundred pounds in fines. If that is in fact the case then hiring a solicitor would be silly.
Can a district rescind an offer of employment? Yes. Any contractural offer can be withdrawn so long as it has not been accepted. You did not accept it, so the withdrawal is legal. Can they hire someone who is not qualified ... That depends on the particular law that mandates the qualification. As a general principle, anyone is allowed to work at anything unless there is a law that says “you cant do job X unless you have qualification/licence/accreditation/whatever Y.” So you need to actually read that law. Some allow a grace period for a person to do X while they get Y and some are outright prohibitions. And there are some things that people think require a specific qualification because everybody has one but there is actually no legal requirement. For example, I’m a qualified arbitrator, adjudicator and mediator. I need the qualification to work as the first one in australia and I it to work as the second in queensland but not new-south-wales but I don’t need it anywhere to work as the last one - most mediators have qualifications but they are not legally required. I am not a qualified lawyer because I don’t need to be to work as any of the above and, indeed, merely being a lawyer does not allow you to work as an arbitrator. … and rescind my offer of employment? The eligibility of the person they chose to hire has no bearing on their decision not to hire you. If they have hired an unqualified person then that is for the relevant regulator to deal with and has nothing to do with you. Are they not obligated to hire the most qualified applicant? No they are not. Employers have the discretion to choose the applicant they consider the “best”. And they can assess how your better qualifications weigh up against someone else’s past history with the organisation. Provided they do not consider things that they are not permitted to consider under discrimination law and that the process is not corrupt, they can weight the various factors how they wish. However, if an employer has stated that they will weight various applications is a specific way, then they have to do that.
I run CourtListener.com and RECAP and I hear this question from time to time. It depends a little on what kinds of data you're after. Some folks need court data in real time as it's published by the courts, other folks just want to follow particular cases, etc. I think your options are A commercial provider. Maybe Lexis or Bloomberg? I admit I don't know these options particularly well, but it's probably an option. You could use our services, depending on your needs. In the RECAP Archive, we have millions of documents. We get a lot of these from journalists that use our RECAP Extensions, so if it's stuff that's in the news, it can work particularly well. We also do bulk downloads of court data for researchers, but I'm guessing that's probably not your use case. I think the final option is to use a gift card from Visa or another provider. I think if you have a friend in the US, you could buy one, send it there, and they could send you photos of the card to help you out. If this is to gain PACER access and if you need an American address, we could probably lend you our address (we're a non-profit, this is part of our mission, and not a big deal).
According to the information I was able to find, every zone, country, or even states, have their own taxation rules for sales made there. Correct. Well, in no way it's possible that small companies or individuals that sell products internationally deal with tax rules for each buyer, that would be a non-sense, and paying such taxes worldwide would be a nightmare not worth having a small business at all. You are required to comply with the law. If it is complicated, or difficult or expensive to do so then, it's complicated, difficult and expensive and you still have to do it. The answer is obvious: if it's not worth having a small business, don't have a small business. The main question, if someone buys a license from my web-site, is it considered a sale in the buyer's country/state which requires me to collect and pay some remote tax, or it's a purchase in my country/state which requires me to collect HST from that buyer? It depends on the law in both Canada and the destination country. In most cases, the sale will be an export sale from Canada (GST/HST exempt) and an import sale in the destination country - requiring you to comply with GST/HST obligations there. Another question is regarding invoices, I know that Canada requires certain information to be included into an invoice for sales in Canada. If my sales will be considered sales in a buyer's Country with some other rules, does it mean I have to manage tons of invoice templates? Yes. Let's say if my sales in UE exceed 30K EUR it looks like I need to register and pay VAT there. But what if I have less? Then you don't need to register and remit tax. Nor are you allowed to collect it from your customers. By the way, I have no idea what country in the Eurozone goes by the initials UE. In most jurisdictions, you need to register either when you reach the threshold in fact or reasonably expect to reach the threshold. Also in most, you can usually register even if you are below the threshold. For example, these are the rules for Australia. Anyone, please advice. Hire an accountant versed in international digital services. They will be able to give you the advice you need. They will also be able to recommend sales/payment platforms that can handle most of this for you (for a fee, of course).
where does the prosecution occur? Prosecutions generally occur where a crime is committed. The area where a crime or other wrongdoing is committed is considered the proper &quot;forum&quot; for adjudicating the case. With respect to the law you cited, you should take note of the statutory limitations imposed upon the Attorney General in pursuing such a case (called a § 1119 prosecution). When considering the limitations, it is unlikely a trial of an American who killed an American in Canada would be tried in the United States. Those limitations begin with a prosecutor seeking written permission by the AG. This permission cannot be granted if the other country has already prosecuted the individual for the same conduct. Also, the AG can only give that permission if, after consulting the Secretary of State, he or she determines that the killing occurred in a jurisdiction where the suspect is &quot;no longer present&quot; and that the country is unable to &quot;lawfully secure the person's return.&quot; and I'm wondering what that process actually looks like. This would be a consultation between Justice Department attorneys and the Assistant Secretary(ies) of State whose portfolio contains the foreign country in question. From the DOJ in particular, the Assistant AG for the Criminal Division is in charge of considering the above criteria and granting approvals. The Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section handles these issues within the Criminal Division. Does the Attorney General have to petition the other government for permission to prosecute them in the home country? No. The statutory limitations listed above necessitate that the suspect has already left that country and part of the AG's determination must be that it is unlikely that country will be able to secure the person's return. That said, might that country petition the United States that it wants the suspect to be returned to stand trial there? Potentially. Does it make a difference if the key witnesses are also all Americans, therefore arguing that chances of conviction are more likely if tried within the U.S. where all participants reside and are available to testify? This is, of course, a general consideration when determining which jurisdiction should handle a matter. It isn't clear to what degree it comes into consideration in this type of prosecution. does anyone know any famous/well known examples of this happening? Famous/well-known? I can't be sure, but see, e.g., United States v White, 51 F. Supp. 2d 1008 (E.D. Cal. 1997), United States v. Nipper, 198 F. Supp. 2d 818 (W.D. La. 2002), United States v. Wharton, 320 F.3d 526 (5th Cir. 2003), and United States v. Brimager, 123 F.Supp.3d 1246 (S.D. Cal 2015). Interestingly, the statute gets substantial discussion and review in this Department of Justice White Paper entitled, Legality of a Lethal Operation by the Central Intelligene Agency Against a U.S. Citizen, in the context of whether the CIA could kill an American citizen in Yemen who has been reasonably determined to be a senior leader of al-Qaida.
You didn't post the details of what exactly is involved with a "vampire initiation fee": is this simply the purchase of an physical object? Or the purchase of a service, such as the placing of a spell or the providing of the service of alleged protection from vampires? Or is this some form of a real "Advance-fee scam" where money and banking credentials or personal information is involved? (See link below). But in the big picture, one person's scam is another person's persuasive business sales pitch for an unusual item or service. Simply being able to pay for such an item or service doesn't make the sale - or the contract to sell it - illegal everywhere. It may be the case that selling an "vampire initiation fee" does not happen to be illegal in Nigeria. Illegal in the US, possibly yes. illegal there? Maybe not. Contract laws differ; in the US, contracting for something that is illegal voids the contract. In Nigeria, maybe not. Though the "vampire initiation fee" doesn't sound to me like a classic Advance-fee scam (Wikipedia), Google search on 419 scams and the results will tell you that it will be nearly impossible to get a prosecutor in that country to deal with anything like that, even if it is a real scam that promises lots of money for an upfront fee. Prosecutors have much better things to do. And you might have to go to Nigeria to make your case; see other answers that more fully outline the laws and legal aspects. Good luck. And it's better to spend your money on some garlic and a mirror. 7/03/18 Update re: the email transcript linked in question That's not a scam; the person is simply trying to sell you on the initiation fee. There is no crime. There is no promise of more money for a small fee (and bank credentials or personal information) like a typical 419 advance fee scam. You're not producing useful evidence for a prosecutor by engaging in the email and mostly agreeing to pay him. It's not illegal for you to send money by Western Union for the vampire fee. Even if you did send money, you're not being defrauded because you already know the vampire initiation is fake, and as a result you couldn't logically prove to a prosecutor or court that you were scammed. He's not guilty of fraud as no money has changed hands for a (fraudulent) service. Emailing with him might make you feel good by wasting his time, but that's all.
As a matter of contract law it would not be possible to enforce a requirement to pay legal fees without agreement. You could easily see how this would be problematic: one could just draft letters to hundreds or thousands of people and require them to pay the costs of composing the letter. My understanding is that this is common practice in the United States (see speculative invoicing). However, people are generally free to pay whatever they want to anyone they want. The other side is free to pay the legal costs, they just probably won't. In some common law jurisdictions, the concept of a Calderbank offer may be another reason to write a letter such as this; the settlement offer can be relied upon in later proceedings as an indication as to the costs that would be appropriate to award to the winning party, should the offeree unnecessarily prolong legal proceedings