Privacy Policy

1. About This Policy

VMCO Australia provides registered migration agent and immigration services. We handle personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), the Migration Agents Regulations 1998 (Cth) and the OMARA Code of Conduct. Using our services or website (www.vmcoaustralia.com.au) means you agree to this Policy.

2. Information We Collect

• Identity and contact details — name, DOB, address, email, phone.
• Immigration information — passport, visa, travel and application history.
• Education, employment and financial information relevant to your matter.
• Family/sponsor details, where relevant.
• Sensitive information (e.g. health, police checks), where required or consented.
• Website/technical data (IP address, browser, cookies).

Collected directly from you wherever practicable, and otherwise from sponsors, referees, education providers, government agencies or other relevant third parties.

3. How We Use It

To prepare and lodge your visa/citizenship/migration matter; communicate with the Department of Home Affairs, Administrative Review Tribunal and other bodies; manage billing and our client relationship; meet legal/record-keeping obligations; and, with consent, send marketing (opt out anytime).

4. Sharing for Service Improvement, Training and Marketing

We may use personal information limited to your name, email address and phone number, and share this limited information with our business (including related entities, franchise partners or affiliates), for the purpose of enhancing our services, staff training and marketing. This use is separate from, and not a condition of, our provision of migration services to you. We will only do this with your specific, opt-in consent, obtained separately from your client services agreement (for example, via a distinct consent clause or checkbox at the time of engagement, or a separate request). You may decline or withdraw this consent, or opt out of marketing, at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer, without affecting the migration services we provide to you.

5. Disclosure

We may disclose personal information to:

• the Department of Home Affairs, the Administrative Review Tribunal and other Australian government, regulatory or legal entities, wherever we are obliged under Australian law;
• police, courts and authorities in Australia or overseas, where required or authorised by an applicable law of the country in which we or our clients operate;
• sponsors, employers, education/skills-assessing bodies named in your application;
• professional advisers, IT/case-management providers and payment processors (bound by confidentiality); and
• any other party with your consent.

In short: VMCO Australia discloses information to relevant Australian authorities (including the DHA), and to law enforcement and legal entities in Australia or overseas, wherever legally obliged — whether under Australian law or the law of a country in which we or our business operate. We do not sell personal information.

6. Overseas Disclosure

Where an overseas recipient is involved, we take reasonable APP 8 steps to protect your information, except where an exception applies (e.g. legal requirement, or your informed consent).

7. Security, Retention and Deletion

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access. Registered migration agents must retain client records for at least seven (7) years under the Migration Agents Regulations 1998.

You may request that we delete your personal information once we are no longer required to retain it. We will act on such a request within a reasonable time. However, due to the nature of electronic systems, backups, archival storage and disaster-recovery processes, deleted information may not be immediately or permanently erased from all systems, and residual copies may continue to exist in backups or be technically recoverable using advanced data-recovery tools, despite our reasonable efforts. While we will delete information from our active systems upon a valid request, we cannot guarantee that all copies of that information are irretrievably destroyed or incapable of recovery.

8. Access, Correction and Complaints

Contact our Privacy Officer to request access to or correction of your information (response generally within 30 days; identity verification may be required). Unresolved complaints may be escalated to the OAIC (www.oaic.gov.au) or, for agent conduct, OMARA (www.mara.gov.au).

9. Cookies, Minors and Third-Party Links

Our website may use cookies (disable via browser settings). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. Where a minor's information is involved (e.g. dependants on a family application), we collect only the information reasonably necessary for your migration matter, our services, or as required by the Department of Home Affairs or other authorities under applicable law, and we rely on parental/guardian consent. We are not responsible for third-party websites linked from our site.

10. Changes to This Policy

This Policy may be updated from time to time; the current version is always on www.vmcoaustralia.com.au.