REFLECTION ON PAST INTERVIEWS
The interview is a great way to get to know your clients. It is not only a way to gather information about your clients but also an excellent opportunity to gain their trust and build confidence. As a Licensed Immigration Adviser (LIA), I have had interviews with four to five clients per week on average over the past six months, including online and face-to-face interviews. In this assessment, I will focus on my thoughts and reflections about the meetings, and my way to go about an interview before, during, and after.
BEFORE THE INTERVIEW
Information collection
When I first became an LIA, I was not familiar with some types of visas and was not experienced with Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) of eligibility criteria. To better understand the SMC and serve my clients, I researched and gathered information prior to interviewing clients. Therefore, to give accurate advice, I prefer gathering key information from clients before the face-to-face interviews. The advantages of information collection include the following:
1. Providing time to do homework and research to avoid giving wrong or incomplete advice.
2. Saving clients' time. If the client is not eligible to apply for a certain type of visa, we can know immediately after we gather the key information before the face-to-face interview. Then, the client can decide whether he or she still needs to come to our office. If the client is eligible to apply for some type of visa, it can save time to figure out the possible options before the interview rather than think about solutions during the interview.
3. Preparing clients in advance during the information gathering process. For example, if a client needs to apply under the SMC, I usually ask him or her to prepare documents, such as Qualification, Transcript, Offer and Employment Agreement, before the interview. This allows me to predict the risk and the client's eligibility to apply for a particular visa.
4. Building confidence in new LIAs.
The way to collect information
Initially, I gathered client information by asking questions, but during my work, I found it inefficient. Therefore, to improve efficiency without omitting key information, I made frequently asked questions regarding different visas into questionnaires. This has proved to be an efficient way to gather information.
For example, the attached questionnaire is used for partnership-based visas.
DURING THE INTERVIEW
Interview
During the interview process, we need to give an Initial Assessment and a Preliminary Assessment, answer client questions and build trust and confidence. My reflections are as follows:
1. The eligibility criteria need to be judged or explained first. If the client is not qualified to apply for a particular type of visa, we do not need to gather specific information in or before the interview but instead need to focus on the possible options/solutions to meet the requirements. For example, to be successfully selected in the Expression of Interest stage of the SMC, the application should have 160 points. If the applicant only has 130 points, we should provide solutions, such as working outside the Auckland region (30 points), claiming points from their partner or previous work experience and so on.
2. We should give a range of options to our clients at the beginning of the process. A comprehensive assessment helps decrease communication time during the follow-up visa processing time. If we did not give a possible range of options at the initial assessment stage, the clients might ask about other possible solutions during the visa processing stage. When they find out there is another solution (even though it may not be the best one), they still have the right to change. However, by this time our case may be halfway through the first solution, and it would be time-consuming to switch to another. Therefore, to avoid this situation, wherever possible, we should offer a reasonable range of options at the beginning.
3. Regarding information gathering, we need to ask more open-ended wh-questions, such as why, what, where and who, instead of general questions because some clients prefer to answer yes or no rather than give details, which may influence our judgement.
4. We should advise our clients as to the potential barriers to eligibility and potential risks regarding the application so that the client is informed and subsequent disputes can be avoided. If we fail to inform a client of the risks and obstacles and the visa is eventually declined, the client may think we should take all the responsibility rather than thinking about their own inadequacies, which can easily lead to client complaints.
5. We should not only provide correct advice and information but also give the reasons for the advice given. First, as an LIA, we need to keep alert to any immigration policy changes, improve our professional knowledge and give correct advice. If the advice is incorrect, it will directly affect the result. Second, we should provide the reasons for our advice because clients are not professionals, and it is inevitable for them to have concerns about our advice. If we cannot answer their questions or turn a blind eye to their questions, it will be difficult to build trust and confidence with our clients. Giving a basis for our advice can also help the clients know their applications better so that they can support our work in a positive way, such as by adequately completing and handing in the documents we require.
6. We should give a clear plan to make sure our clients know what to do next and reduce their confusion.
Although some potential clients may seem troublesome and may not become our clients in the future, we still need to be cautious at this stage because our advice is likely to affect the plans for their families.
AFTER THE INTERVIEW
After the interview, the most critical part is to send the clients a clear summary plan. I prefer to use mind maps to provide a summary plan. The advantages of doing this are as follows：
1. Our clients can have a clear idea of what to do next to avoid confusion.
2. We can use it as a part of the file notes and have a better idea of what advice we provided to the client.
In short, before the interview, we must collect essential information about the clients in advance so that we can assess the overall situation of the client and save time. During the interview process, we need to give professional advice and solutions and explain the reasons for our advice to build client trust and confidence. After the interview, we need to put the plan into writing so that the client knows precisely what to do next.