Privacy Policy

At Lead International Visa Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, we understand that your privacy is important to you. Therefore, we are committed to complying with the Privacy Act and the Sri Lankan Privacy Principles concerning all Personal Information and sensitive information we collect from you. This policy describes our Privacy and Information handling practices.

In this Privacy Policy:

We also know you love the small print, but here is a summary of how we protect your privacy:

1. We only collect what we need to help you with your request or provide you with information that you ask for, personalizing it to your interests.
2. We will not hang on to your information. If we do not need it and do not want us to keep it, we’ll delete it.
3. We want you to understand everything we do with your information, so we will try our best to explain with no-nonsense.
4. No surprises — you decide what and how you hear from us.
5. That goes for everyone. We do not pass your information to third parties for marketing purposes without your knowledge.

The rest of this policy provides you with more detail about our privacy and personal information handling practices.

Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or a reasonably identifiable individual, whether the information or opinion is accurate or not, and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

Sensitive information includes information or an opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a professional or trade association or criminal record that is also personal information, or health information about an individual, or biometric information used for automated biometric verification or identification, or biometric templates.

Definitions of other specific terms referred to in this policy can be found under the heading ‘Glossary’ at the end of this document.

Privacy Policy

This policy outlines the following:

1. The types of Personal Information that we collect and hold.
2. How we collect Personal Information.
3. The purposes for which the information is collected.
4. How we use and disclose Personal Information.
5. The steps we take to protect and secure the Personal Information we hold.
6. How individuals can access and correct the Personal Information contained by us.
7. Mechanisms for complaint if you are unhappy about how we have dealt with or are dealing with your Personal Information.

 The types of Personal Information that we collect and hold

In the ordinary course of business activities, we will collect Personal Information from you, including some Sensitive Information.

International Education Information, Advice and Counselling

The services we offer to help you study overseas include counselling, application assistance, visa assistance, English language testing and training, student exhibitions and seminars.

If you register on our websites ( www.leadintlk.com ) or register to participate in an event, we will collect personal information such as your name, email address, contact details, country of residence, nationality, preferred study destination, and when you intend to study.

Suppose you enquire about study opportunities directly with a Lead International Visa Consultants Pvt Ltd counsellor, or we assist you with your application to study. In that case, we may also request additional information such as education qualifications, employment history, occupation, areas of interest and professional memberships, copies of documents as proof of identity – e.g. copies of passport, proof of citizenship or photographs, marital status and how you will fund your studies. In addition, we may also request sensitive information about you, such as racial or ethnic origin (from information on your country of origin) and your health or medical information (e.g. from a medical examination required for your visa application for Embassy).

Collecting your personal information allows us to:

• assist you to pursue the opportunity to undertake studies in an education institution outside your home country;
• provide you with relevant information on your study options;
• present you as a candidate to your preferred institutions across all education sectors, which are seeking to recruit international students who want to study in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada or New Zealand, etc
• assist you to further your career after completing your studies at an overseas education institution;
• provide opportunities to participate in projects/programs as consultants;
• provide opportunities to provide feedback and testimonials on your experience
• inform and provide students, institutions and other clients of developments in the services we provide (including events and opportunities to participate in projects/programs);
• conduct research for statistical, analytical and training purposes;
• manage our internal business operations and events; and
• Respond to your questions.

Student Essentials Services

Lead International Visa Consultants Pvt Ltd offers services from third parties to help support you in your studies overseas, and we call these Student Essentials. These services include Overseas Student Health Cover, accommodation arrangements, an emergency helpline, referral to guardianship services, visa application services and career skills training.

If you purchase a Student Essentials service, we may collect personal information such as your name, date of birth, financial information, and sensitive information such as your health or medical information. We may also collect payment information; however, Lead International Visa Consultants Pvt Ltd does not store credit card details.

Collection of your personal information and sensitive information (such as your health or medical information) allows us to:

• provide the health insurance provider nominated by you with all relevant information for your insurance
• facilitate your accommodation arrangements with third party providers;
• contact the relevant organizations, authorities or other third parties concerning your overseas guardianship application;
• respond to your query and direct your question when you contact the Lead International Visa Consultants Pvt Ltd Helpline
• contact abroad institutions or other organizations on your behalf to facilitate visits, career skills training or internship placements;
• Arrange or provide other products and services to you.

Visa application services

We provide visa application services for visas, including guiding you through the application process and helping you prepare the necessary documents for your nominated visa application. These visa application services cover visa applications required for study and post-study work and skilled migration visa applications.

Retention

Lead International Visa Consultants Pvt Ltd’s Vision To be the leading Overseas Education Consulting Organization, create success stories for our students, value additions to our partner institutions and all other stakeholders.

As a guide, we will keep your personal information for up to 5 years after commencing your studies or your last activity with us so that we can continue to support you through your journey unless required to retain it for legal or regulatory purposes.

International Visa Consultants Pvt Ltd organizes various events and conferences related to international education and English language teaching and assessment, which may be managed or presented by Lead International Visa Consultants Pvt Ltd or the IELTS Owners, whether in our own right or under contract for another organization. The information we collect is relevant to your attendance and participation.

In registering for or participating in, an event we collect your details such as name, postal and email addresses, date of birth, contact details, residency status, education qualifications, employment history, occupation, areas of interest and professional memberships.

Collection of your personal information allows us to:

• register you to attend the event;
• provide services to you related to the event (e.g. to list you as a speaker in the program or list you as an exhibitor or sponsor in our exhibitor directory)
• respond to enquiries from you pre and post the event;
• keep you informed about the event you registered for and future events
• manage our operations for the event, including the fulfilment of any legal requirements;
• collect customer views on our services to develop new and improved services;
• obtain website usage data to monitor our website performance; and
• If applicable, process payment for registration or other event-related services/products, e.g. accommodation payments/deposits, additional social event tickets, etc.).

We will only collect Personal Information by lawful and fair means. For example, personal information may be collected directly from you or your authorized representative or collected from a third party such as a licensee or representative authorized by us to provide services to you. In addition, you may supply your personal information when communicating with us via social networks and other online channels, e.g. through your Facebook identity.

We do not collect Personal and Sensitive information unless the information is reasonably necessary for our business functions or activities. We will obtain your consent before collecting any Sensitive Information.

When you deal with us, you will need to identify yourself to provide our services to you. As such, we do not accept the use of pseudonyms.

The purposes for which the information is collected

We collect, hold and use your Personal Information so that we can provide our services to you.

Student Placement

Services in our student placement business include, for example, recruitment, counselling, student placement, visa assistance, English language testing and training, student exhibitions and seminars.

Collection of your Personal Information allows us to:

• assist you to pursue the opportunity to undertake studies in an education institution Worldwide;
• assist you in your application for a student visa, including contacting the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and other organizations on your behalf to discuss your application;
• assist you to further your career after completing your studies at an overseas education institution;
• provide opportunities to participate in projects/programs as consultants;
• inform and provide students, institutions and other clients of developments in the services we provide (including events and opportunities to participate in projects/programs);
• conduct research for statistical, analytical and training purposes;
• manage our internal business operations and events; and
• Respond to your questions.

Services in our IELTS Testing business include administration of IELTS tests and assistance with visa applications.

Collection of your Personal Information allows us to:

• Share the relevant information from your IELTS application or test with educational institutions, IELTS test centres, governments (including visa processing authorities), or professional bodies and commercial organizations that recognize IELTS scores;
• forward any enquiries you have to another of the IELTS Owners (The British Council and Cambridge) following your expressed preference (e.g. when you make a general enquiry about sitting an IELTS test);
• share any relevant information from your IELTS application or test with the other joint owners of the IELTS test (The British Council and Cambridge) for purposes such as administering the IELTS test, reviewing IELTS test results for statistical and fraud detection purposes, or accommodating changes in your preference as to test centre location;
• Share the relevant information from your IELTS application or test to regulatory authorities for verification purposes, to protect the IELTS test and its stakeholders or where legally required;
• inform you of and provide you with information on the services we provide (including events and opportunities to participate in projects/programs);
• use your information in an anonymous form for informational, research, statistical and training purposes for the development of Cambridge English Language Assessment examinations;
• manage our internal business operations; and
• Respond to your questions.

We provide visa application services for Overseas visas, including guiding you through the application process and helping you prepare the necessary documents for your nominated visa application. These visa application services cover visa applications required for study and post-study work, visit visas, and skilled migration visa applications.

Collection of your Personal Information and Sensitive Information (such as information from your medical examination) allows us to:

• provide the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) with all relevant information required for your visa application;
• contact the DIBP or other organizations on your behalf to discuss or ask questions about your visa application; and
• Keep you updated with your visa application’s progress and advise you of the outcome of your application.

We will use or disclose your Personal Information only for the purposes for which it was collected. We will use or disclose your information for a secondary purpose only if you have consented or if you would reasonably expect us to do so or as required by law.

• We may use your Personal Information for our direct marketing; however, we will ensure you can opt-out of future such communications.

You have the right to seek access to any of your personal information held by us unless there is a valid reason under the Privacy Act or Data Protection Act for us to withhold the information.

Valid reasons include:

We have reason to suspect that unlawful activity or misconduct of a serious nature has been engaged in, and giving access would be likely to prejudice the taking of appropriate action concerning the matter; or

Giving access would reveal evaluative information generated within us in connection with a commercially sensitive process.

If your details change, or you believe the information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact us to correct our records.

The steps we take to protect and keep secure the Personal Information we hold

We take reasonable steps to protect the Personal Information we hold against interference, loss, unauthorized access, use, modification or disclosure, and another misuse.

The steps we take include:

• maintenance of computer technology, people and process-based security measures, for example, firewalls, network security configurations, use of passwords and other appropriate measures where information is held in electronic form;
• regular updates to security systems and configurations to protect our systems from malicious activity;
• restriction of access to data to only those staff that need access to carry out our business activities;
• Training and ensuring that all our employees are required to treat Personal Information held by us as confidential as a condition of employment.

However, you should be aware that the internet is not a secure environment if you submit information to us electronically. We take reasonable steps to provide a secure channel for receiving information but cannot protect Personal Information before it reaches us.

When the Personal Information that we collect is no longer required, we will destroy, delete it securely, or ensure that the information is de-identified by our information destruction and de-identification policy, unless we are required by law to retain a copy of the Personal Information, or the information is contained in a Commonwealth record.

How individuals can access and correct their Personal Information held by us

You have the right to seek access to any of your Personal Information held by us unless there is a valid reason under the Privacy Act for us to withhold the information.

Valid reasons include:

• We have reason to suspect that unlawful activity or misconduct of a serious nature has been engaged in, and giving access would be likely to prejudice the taking of appropriate action concerning the matter; or
• Giving access would reveal evaluative information generated within us in connection with a commercially sensitive process.

If your details change, or you believe the information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact us to correct our records.

• Requests for access or correction to Personal Information should be made under the Privacy Act and addressed to The Lead International Visa Consultants (Pvt) Ltd Privacy Officer. All requests for access or correction to Personal Information will be responded to in writing within a reasonable period. As part of this process, we will verify the individual’s identity requesting the information before providing access or making any changes. If access or correction to your Personal Information is refused, we will provide reasons for our refusal.

We have procedures in place to deal with your inquiries or complaints.

If you have any questions about our policy or any complaint regarding the treatment of your privacy, please get in touch with us at the respective addresses below.

Complaints to Lead International Visa Consultants (Pvt) Ltd

The Privacy Officer

Lead International Visa Consultants (Pvt) Ltd

183, Galle Road, Dehiwala.

Sri Lanka

feedback@leadintlk.com

• We will endeavour to respond to you within a reasonable time. If you are still not satisfied with how we handle your complaint, you are entitled to have your complaint reviewed under the Privacy Act.

We reserve the right to amend this Policy from time to time. Any revisions to the Policy will be posted on this website.

We use Google Analytics to measure and analyze its Internet usage to ensure the site meets Lead International Visa Consultants (Pvt) Ltd’s business objectives with advertisers and users. Of course, individual privacy is protected, but we gain insights into making the site more useful for advertisers and our users.

Data collected from this analysis include:

• the number of page views (or page impressions) that occur on our sites;
• the number of unique visitors;
• how long these unique visitors (on average) spend on our sites;
• standard entry and exit points to our sites;
• files downloaded from the site; and
• forms filled in on the site.

Cookies

Cookies are small data files sent from a website and stored in a user’s web browser. Lead International Visa Consultants (Pvt) Ltd’s websites use cookies to improve the user’s web browsing experience (e.g. language preference or selected locality).

If you wish to disable the cookies on this website, you will need to follow the steps required for your preferred browser (e.g. In Internet Explorer 10 and 11, this can be found in the Privacy tab under Internet Options).

We currently advertise with Third-party vendors, including Google, displaying ads on sites on the internet. These third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to our website. Some of the information gathered, such as age, gender and interests, might be used for marketing purposes. Users may opt-out of Google’s cookies by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page à link to http://www.google.com/settings/ads.