SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES FOR STUDENT VISA

　　APPLICANT : MS A

　　[A] EVENTS LEADING TO THIS APPLICATION

　　In Apr 1999, Ms A attended a seminar hosted by xxx Girls High School and us in Zhengzhou, Henan. She and her parents were later interviewed by Mrs xxx, the Deputy Principal of xxx Girls.

　　She was considered a suitable student and was given a Letter of Offer. . Her application was lodged on 29 Apr 1999 and was given an application reference number xxx. Her request was refused on 16 Jul 1999 and the reasons for the refusal was given as:

　　"Although you have provided funds in support of your application, based on your family's combined income, it is considered that you have insufficient means to maintain long term studies in New Zealand."

　　Her second application was lodged on 14 Sep 1999 and was given an application reference number xxx. The application was again refused and Schedule 14A contains the official reasons in the second refusal. As can be seen, the reasons given were non-specific and the letter was couched in general terms. Schedule 15A is the copy of the Decision Notes that you were kind enough to provide me in our subsequent meetings.

　　According to the Notes, the visa officer based her decision on the following points:

　　(1) Result of her telephone enquiry indicated that the parents did not go to work at the furniture store regularly.

　　(2) The wages figure contained in the balance sheet provided by the father were not consistent with the salary sheets. She therefore came to the conclusion that one of the two documents must have been falsified.

　　(3) Name cards of the father's partners and price lists submitted were considered irrelevant to the case. The visa officer indicated that the parents did not produce their own name cards and the employer's letter was not written on proper letterheads.The visa officer considered that the bank deposit books should be stamped by two employees from the bank, but one book had only one stamp.

　　The officer also discovered that a person by the name of B who is supposed to work at the bank was on the list of employees of the company.

　　[B] OUR BRIEF REPLY

　　Going through the various documents contained in the file and looking at the second visa officer's rejection, I have to admit that the documentation produced together with some of the findings of the visa officer, do lead one to conclude that there are certain aspects of doubtful circumstances.

　　We would however, like to address the various points raised by the visa officer to clarify matters and to demonstrate that our client satisfies the present requirements and should be eligible for the issue of a student visa. We shall now proceed to deal with the various points one by one as follows.

　　[C] THE CASE OF THE ABSENT BOSS

　　In reply to the query from the visa officer handling our first application, we had submitted an Organisation Chart of the father's business; a copy is enclosed at Schedule 4A. As can be seen, the furniture store is the retail arm of the trading company of which the father is the Legal Representative. Apart from the furniture business the company is also involved in other trading activities. As the furniture business has been reasonably well established, the father does not report to the retail store on a daily basis.

　　There are quite a number of sales personnel in the retail store and given the relatively quick staff turnover, which is the norm of the sales industry and the difference in age, sex, cultural standards and individual personalities of the staff, it is possible that the telephone enquiry was received by a relatively new member who did not know too much about the organisational structure of the company and who was not a proper person to answer such an enquiry.

　　We do admit that the father does not go to the retail shop everyday, but that does not mean that he is not involved with the business. In this regard, we have already given you a copy of the company's Trading License confirming that the father is the Legal Representative of the organization.

　　[D] THE CASE OF FALSIFIED INFORMATION

　　Schedule 5A contains copies of balance sheets of the company, which you were kind enough to provide when I visited your office. According to the visa officer, the wages figure for 1997 and 1998 were $ 31,000 and $ 48,000 respectively but they were at variance with salaries records because there were 13 employees and the amounts indicated in the balance sheets were much too low. I am afraid it is a bit embarrassing for me to say this, but I believe the visa officer has little accounting training because one does not extract expenses from Balance Sheets. One looks for expenses in Profit and Loss Statements. The figures given in the balance sheets were accruals; in other words, they were amounts outstanding at the date of the balance sheets as unpaid wages. They are not total amount of wages for the year. I am a professional accountant, a qualified CPA in Australia and I would request that you accept my explanations.

　　[E] THE CASE OF THE BUSINESS CARDS