VZCZCXRO3215
RR RUEHCHI RUEHFK RUEHHM RUEHKSO RUEHNAG RUEHPB
DE RUEHDN #0081/01 0890301
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 300301Z MAR 09
FM AMCONSUL SYDNEY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8862
RUEHPNH/NVC PORTSMOUTH 1838
INFO RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1476
RUEHBN/AMCONSUL MELBOURNE 2616
RUEHPT/AMCONSUL PERTH 0553
RUEHZU/APEC COLLECTIVE

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