Australia Migration Agents (AMA) does only one thing, and it does it well. For 27 years the multinational company has built its reputation on helping its clients procure Australian visas successfully.

With offices in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, AMA recently opened a representative office in Cambodia and is the first and only registered agent for Australian migration officially approved to operate in the Kingdom.

The agency handles many types of migration, including family and partner visas as well as employer-sponsored and skills migration, with a special focus on procuring business visas and handling judicial appeals of visa cancellations and refusals.

AMA’s entry into Cambodia is an especially beneficial advancement for the Kingdom’s visa broker market, which has long been plagued by scammers who prey on visa applicants by demanding investment capital without providing any assurance of a successful application, according to AMA Chief Executive Officer Robert Chelliah.

“I immediately give my clients the information they need to contact the Migration Agents Registration Authority [MARA] and Department of Immigration and Border Protection, and I explain to them how to report an agent who is not compliant with the law,” he said. “No other agent in Cambodia does that, because the other agents are not registered with MARA.”

All services offered by AMA are fully compliant with Australian laws regarding consumer protection and privacy, as well as criminal and tax laws in both Australia and Cambodia.

“I prefer to ensure my clients can secure permanent residency without any risk,” he said.

Costs for AMA services vary depending on the type of visa and the complexity of each application, and start at about $800.

Chelliah said he often recommends that clients enter Australia through Business Visa Subclass 188-Investor, where by investing A$1.1 million in an interest-bearing deposit in Australia they will be granted a four-year provisional visa to take up residency in Australia.

By depositing the A$1.1 million in an Australian bank account they are entitled to immediate benefits in Australia. By the end of that period they will be able to retrieve their investment and convert their provisional visa into permanent resident status.

“Many Cambodians don’t realise they have the assets to pursue this means of gaining residency, but I’m here to help them secure these investment visas,” he explained.

Van Ra Taing, one of AMA’s first Cambodian clients, explained he had been planning a move to Australia for some time, driven by his desire to provide his children with a better education and easier lifestyle, but had been unable to find a reliable agent to assist him with the visa process.

“There are lots of untrustworthy agents in Cambodia,” Taing said, adding that he spent over a month researching AMA before he was convinced that it was the only reputable service of its kind in the Kingdom.

He added that the in-person advice he was given by Chelliah and his associates proved invaluable to his understanding of the visa process.

“Chelliah’s services have made me more confident,” he said. “I felt like this was a daunting process, but working with AMA made me feel ready.”

Chelliah said putting his clients at ease is one of the most important aspects of his job, which requires he understand the cultural and socioeconomic background of each applicant in order to most effectively assist them.

“We have achieved a high success rate by carefully assessing the eligibility of our clients at the outset,” he said. “We assist our clients in person, and give them complete assurance that all information will remain totally confidential.”

While AMA will not assist a client who has made his or her money illegally, those clients it does choose to represent are assured of highly dedicated service.

“I leave no stone unturned,” Chelliah said. “I want to win for my client.”