OUR PRIVACY POLICY

 

Grassroots Consulting Ltd, trading as VISALEGAL

In this Privacy Policy (Policy), any references to “we”, “us” or “our” shall be reference to Grassroots Consulting Ltd (trading as VISALEGAL)

 

Your privacy is important to us, we respect your personal privacy and are committed to maintain your trust and confidence in the way we use and disclose your personal information. This Policy sets out how we collect, use, disclose and protect your personal information and how we comply with our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020.

 

You have the choice not to provide us with your personal information (other than may be required by law), however, this may result in us being unable to provide you with our services or substantially reduce what services or aspects of our website you are able to access.

 

Information we collect

 

We need to collect personal information in order to operate our business and provide our services to you. The personal information we may collect from you includes:

• Information that verifies your identity such as your full name, date of birth, passport, birth certificate and marriage certificate;
• your contact information including your residential address, postal address, email address, telephone number;
• evidence around your relationship such as your marriage certificate, proof of address and other documents which support your relationship and family history including photos and other supporting documents;
• documents supporting your immigration history including previous applications;
• documents supporting your employment history including work references, payslips, tax records and business records;
• bank statements, financial statements, tax returns, origin of funds, credit history and or bank references; or
• credit card information for payment purposes.

 

We collect your personal information when you interact with us, what information we collect will depend on how you interact with us and for what purpose. We will only collect information necessary to provide services to you or to otherwise manage your interaction with us. We will generally collect personal information when you:

 

• engage our services;

• disclose information to us, our employees, agents or authorised third parties in person, via email and through facilities on our website at www.visalegal.co.nz and

• where you otherwise contact us and provide personal information to us directly.

 

By providing us with your personal information you are consenting to us collecting your personal information and using it in accordance with this Policy and applicable law.

 

Information may be collected from third parties

 

In most instances we will collect personal information directly from you. However, given the nature of the services it will not always be possible to collect all personal information directly from you. Where we collect information about you from other people we will only do so where you have provided your consent or signed an authorisation, it is necessary in the circumstances or we are obtaining such information from a publicly available source. Examples of where we collect information about you from others may include your current, past or future employer, Immigration New Zealand, family members, sponsors and third party payment providers.

 

How we use your personal information

 

When we obtain your personal information we will only use that personal information for the purpose for which it was collected or as permitted by law. Generally, we will use your personal information to:

 

• provide our services to you;
• market our service to you, including contacting you by phone, text message or email; and
• improve the services that we provide you.

 

If you directly provide us with your email address or phone number you consent to us contacting you for commercial, marketing and promotional purposes. If you wish to opt out of such emails please notify us at contact@uvisa.co.nz or activate the unsubscribe facility in any such message.

 

Who your information may be disclosed to

 

In the course of using your personal information, we may disclose your personal information to third parties. We will only share personal information with third parties where we are permitted under this Policy, where you have specifically authorised us to do so or in accordance with our legal obligations. For example, we may share your personal information with:

 

• Immigration NZ;
• Immigration Advisers Licensed Authority;
• Employers where you have instructed us to do so;
• your family members and others where you have authorised us to do so;
• any business that supports our services or helps us to deliver the services for example IT
• service providers, financial payment services and data centres; and
• any person whom we are permitted to do so under law.

 

Other than disclosing your information to Immigration New Zealand in your best interests, and to the Immigration Advisers Licensing Authority under our licensing requirements, we will only disclose your personal information to trusted third parties. We impose strict conditions on their use of your information and require that all your information is kept confidential.

 

Where your information is disclosed outside of New Zealand for the purpose of holding or processing information, such as a cloud service provider, this is not considered a disclosure under the Privacy Act 2020. In agreeing to this Policy you are agreeing to us providing your information outside of New Zealand for the purposes of processing or holding information on our behalf.

 

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites that we may believe to be useful and informative for you. However, please be aware that we do not endorse or recommend the content of these sites and are not responsible for the privacy practices of these websites. Please ensure you understand and read the privacy policy and terms of use of each site that you choose to visit.

 

How we protect and store your information

 

We are committed to keeping the personal information you provide to us safe against loss, unauthorised access, unauthorised modification and unauthorised disclosure. We will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary or longer than required by law.

 

We have implemented a variety of security measures in relation to the protection of personal information. We use reasonable safeguards such as file encryption technology to secure the transmission of sensitive information. Data is stored with a secure cloud services provider based in New Zealand and cyber security testing is regularly undertaken by this third party to ensure a high standard of security is maintained.

 

Where we do provide your information to third parties in accordance with this Policy, we will require that third party to protect your personal information. If a third party is located outside of New Zealand we shall ensure that such entities have similar levels of privacy protection as New Zealand.

 

What do we do if there is a breach of your privacy?

 

If we believe that there has been a privacy breach, then we will identify the breach and take reasonable steps to minimise any harm caused by the breach.

 

Where we believe any breach of privacy poses a risk of serious harm, or is likely to cause serious harm then we shall notify the Privacy Commissioner and affected parties.

 

Where you believe that there has been a breach in relation to your privacy, then please contact us as soon as possible.

 

If you are not satisfied with the way we have dealt with or resolved your complaint then you can escalate this by contacting the Privacy Commissioner at any time:

 

Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner
Website: www.privacy.org.nz
Phone: 0800 803 909
Email: enquiries@privacy.org.nz

 

What is your right to access your personal information?

 

You are entitled to ask whether we hold any personal information about you, access any personal information that we hold about you and to request the correction of any personal information held by us.

 

If you wish to access or correct personal information held by us then please contact our privacy officer as below.

 

Changes to our Privacy Policy

 

We reserve the right to change this Policy from time to time as we see appropriate. In the event we do amend this Policy, we will post the revised version on our website and use reasonable endeavours to draw your attention to the amended policy. The most recent version of this Policy will apply.

 

How to get in touch with us

 

Your privacy is important to us, if you have a general privacy enquiry or complaint about a privacy breach then please contact our Privacy Officer at:

 

Melanie Silcock
mel@visalegal.co.nz