Immigration adviser Malkiat Singh says he probably won't bother tipping off Immigration NZ about scams because nothing ever happens (video first published 2018).

An experienced immigration adviser says he will no longer alert an "incapable" Immigration New Zealand (INZ) to immigration fraud, saying a series of tip-offs have come to nothing.

Malkiat Singh, head of immigration agency Carmento, believes 80 to 90 per cent of all applications to INZ involving employers, including work visa and residency applications, are in some way exaggerated or fraudulent and INZ cannot cope.

A Stuff investigation 'The Big Scam', has uncovered a series of alleged immigration scams, which have gone unpunished.

In December 2016, Malkiat tipped off INZ to a scheme like those covered in 'The Big Scam'.

Indian migrant Harkamal Singh (Malkiat's client) said he had paid $10,000 for a fake job at a security company. INZ was given bank statements, recordings and text messages in relation to the case.

After an initial interview with Harkamal, INZ did little in response to five follow-up inquiries from Malkiat. Meanwhile, Harkamal was surviving on the support of his family and girlfriend, because his work visa was tied to the fake job which paid no wages.

Last week, with Harkamal's visa due to expire his application for a new visa was declined, in part because he wasn't being paid to work.

Three times, without success, Malkiat asked INZ's compliance division, which handles investigations, to intercede on Harkamal's behalf with visa services, which handles deportations, to explain the situation.

Only when Stuff contacted INZ for comment about Harkamal's case did the agency act. On Monday afternoon, South Island manager Sue Jackson called Malkiat. Malkiat said Jackson told him she'd been directed to look into the case urgently because of media attention, asked Harkamal not to talk to media, and said the delays were due to resourcing.

INZ declined to comment on Harkamal's case.

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ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF Immigration advisor Malkiat Singh chased INZ for months over his client, Harkamal Singh's case.

INACTION

Malkiat said he had first spoken out about rampant visa corruption at an immigration advisers conference in November 2015. Afterwards, INZ asked if he had any cases they could investigate. He and several clients met with investigators but not one of them was followed up, he said. Then, in December 2016, he returned with Harkamal's case.

"It makes me very emotional that on one hand, we are saying to people 'don't do bad things, and if you do get into it, speak up', and then when they do speak up, the action they see isn't satisfying what we are promising to these migrants," Malkiat said.

"If we want to clear New Zealand's image across the globe that this is not a country that will tolerate corruption when it comes to immigration, we need to take swift action - not take two years, as has happened in this case.

"I don't know if I want to keep preaching to my clients to come forward [with evidence]."

Harkamal Singh said he still wants to stay here.

"It's very hard for me to survive here, I asked Malkiat many times, I have run out of money, please do anything and he is trying to make contact with the [case] officer but it is not working," he said.

"I don't know what is going on ... I am depressed ... it has been a pretty hard time for me to survive here. I have lost too much money here, lost two or three years - if I got a visa it would be a great opportunity to get my life back on track."

Malkiat said his client had come forward voluntarily, at his suggestion, when he could have simply kept quiet. "This guy believed me when I gave him the advice [to speak out]," he said.

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JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Harkamal Singh has been left in limbo by Immigration NZ's inaction.

DELAYS

Malkiat emailed several times to ask for updates after INZ met Harkamal.

In December 2016, Southern Region manager Steve Hutt wrote: "I anticipate that someone will contact Harkamal some point next week." In March 2017, Malkiat asked for an update, with no reply. In May, he asked again, and Hutt said he was awaiting a response from investigators: "Thank you for your patience". In August, Hutt said it was "still in the Q of work" and someone would contact Harkamal soon.

In December 2017, Hutt wrote: "I will ask the Investigations Manager where this is currently at. Once informed I'll get back." In August 2018, he didn't respond to another enquiry, or to two emails in September regarding Harkamal's student visa application. Hutt's boss David Campbell was also emailed three times, before saying on October 24 that someone would be in touch.

Malkiat believed most visa applications contained some level of exaggeration and misrepresentation, and significant number involved substantial corruption. There was now a generational pattern of exploited migrants in turn exploiting the next wave to arrive, he said.

"The reality is that if all immigration advisers speak up, 80 to 90 per cent of all applications are wrong, and should not be approved - it is a massive number," he said.

"Most of the industry exists because of fraud. If there was no fraud, many advisers and lawyers would leave the industry [because they wouldn't be needed]."

It was clear Immigration NZ was not equipped to deal with the widespread fraud that it was encountering, Malkiat said.

Former immigration minister Tuariki Delamere, now an immigration adviser himself, said he too had sent tip-offs to INZ but seen no action. "I sympathise with that adviser [Malkiat] doing that. Senior [INZ] staff have said to me they are understaffed and there are so many [cases to investigate]. I sympathise with them … but I am happy you are exposing it because the only way you stop [these frauds] is by prosecuting them and publicising it."

Lawyer Alastair McClymont said he "used to tell INZ about them all the time as well - but nothing ever happened".

Immigration New Zealand declined to comment on the complaints about its service.