Professional Standards

Under the Migration Act, only a registered migration agent or an Australian legal practitioner may lawfully give immigration assistance. That includes advising you on a visa application, preparing or helping to prepare one, and representing you in dealings with the Department.

It is an offence for anyone else to do that work, whether or not they charge for it.

Our registration number is published in the footer of every page of this site, on our social media, and on every piece of correspondence we send. You can check any agent's registration on the public register kept by the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority, and we would encourage you to check ours.

Registered migration agents are bound by a Code of Conduct made under the Migration Act. It is not a voluntary standard or an industry charter; it is a legislative instrument, it binds us personally, and the regulator can sanction an agent for breaching it.

The Code requires us to act professionally, competently, diligently, ethically, honestly and with integrity. It requires us to act in your legitimate interests and on your instructions, to have regard to your dependence on our knowledge, to respond to you in a timely way, and to know the dates by which things must be done and what happens if they are not done in time.

Everything below is a consequence of that.

We will not guarantee an outcome. No one can, and the Code specifically prohibits an agent from stating that they can procure a particular decision.

A visa is decided by the Department of Home Affairs and, on review, by the Administrative Review Tribunal. Much of what a matter turns on is decided by other bodies entirely: skills assessing authorities, State and Territory nominating bodies, panel physicians and the health assessment service the Department uses, English language test providers, police and character checking agencies, professional registration boards, and education providers. We do not control any of them. We prepare your matter to the standard each of them expects. What any of them then decides, and how long they take to decide it, is outside our control and outside anyone else's.

We are not part of the Department. We are not a decision-maker, we have no role in government, and being registered gives us no standing inside any of the bodies above. We will say so at your first meeting, because a surprising number of people are told otherwise.

We will not claim a special relationship with any government official. The Code prohibits that too, and the claim is always false. Registration gives an agent access to the same systems and the same processing as everyone else.

We will not misrepresent our qualifications, your prospects, or how the process works. An agent must not make a false or misleading statement about their qualifications, about immigration opportunities or risks, or about migration procedure. That duty extends to anything published on our behalf, by anyone.

If you are told any of those things by anyone in this industry, that alone is a reason to walk away, and it is a matter you can report.

The Code prohibits us from giving immigration assistance that we reasonably believe would be futile, meaning that the purpose is a particular result and there is little or no prospect of achieving it.

In practice that means we cannot lodge an application we believe will fail simply because you want it lodged and are willing to pay. If we hold that view we must tell you. If you still want to proceed after being told, we can only act on your written confirmation that you have been advised and still wish to go ahead.

This is the part of the Code that most protects you, because the application that should never have been lodged is the one that costs the most: in fees, in time, and in the refusal that then sits on your record.

We are paid by you, and only by you.

We receive no commission, referral fee, incentive, discount or other benefit from any education provider, education agent, employer, sponsor, lender, insurer, property developer, or any other third party in connection with your matter. We do not recruit students for education providers, and we hold no agreement with any provider under which we would be paid for placing you.

Where a matter needs something we do not do, such as enrolment with an education provider or legal advice outside migration law, we will tell you who does it, and we will tell you plainly that we receive nothing for the referral.

If that position ever changed, the Code would require us to give you written notice of the interest, including the amount, and to obtain your written statement that you still wish us to act, before we gave you any assistance. You would know about it before it could affect you, not afterwards.

If another person contacts us for you, whether a family member, a friend, an employer or an education agent, the Code requires us to take reasonable steps to verify who they are, and to be satisfied that you have agreed in writing to them dealing with us on your behalf. The same applies where someone deals with us for a sponsor or a nominating employer.

That requirement is not lifted at an initial consultation, and we do not treat it as paperwork. A person who speaks for you can commit you to things, and can learn things about you that are yours alone. We need to know they are who they say they are, and that you chose them.

If we hold an interest that conflicts, or could conflict, with acting properly for you, we must tell you in writing before acting, and you must confirm in writing that you still want us to act.

Where the conflict is an actual one, where our objectivity or the trust and confidence between us would be compromised, or where your confidentiality would be at risk, we cannot act at all, even if you consent. A conflict can also arise through a relative of ours or of yours.

This comes up more often than people expect: in employer-sponsored matters where the employer and the visa applicant both want us; in partner matters where a relationship is breaking down; in family matters where the interests of two applicants diverge. We identify it at the outset and we say so.

Everything in writing, before the work. Fees are set out in a written service agreement before any work begins, as either a fixed fee or an hourly rate, inclusive of GST. Where an hourly rate is used, the agreement carries a reasonable estimate of the time. We cannot exceed that estimate except in exceptional circumstances arising after signing, and then only on a written updated estimate that you agree to in writing.

Disbursements are separate and itemised. Visa application charges, skills assessment fees, health examinations, police certificates, translations. These are government and third-party costs, not our fees, and the agreement says which we pay on your behalf and which you pay directly.

An invoice before you are charged, a receipt after you pay. Both are required of us.

Your money is kept separate. Money you pay us before the work is done is client money. It goes into a client account, it is not mixed with the practice's own funds, and it comes out only for the purposes the Code permits. We cannot be paid for immigration assistance at all unless we have given you a statement of services setting out each service performed and what was charged for it.

No money before the agreement. We cannot receive fees for a matter before a service agreement covering it is in force. The single exception is the fee for an initial consultation, which the Code deals with separately and which is itself held as client money until the consultation has happened.

Refunds. The service agreement carries a refund policy that must be fair and reasonable. Refunds are paid promptly and, in any case, within 14 days of becoming payable.

We do not charge a percentage of any outcome, and no part of our fee depends on a visa being granted. A fee that rises with success is an incentive to lodge applications that should not be lodged.

Your documents are kept securely. If you ask for them in writing we return everything you are entitled to within 14 days.

We do not hold documents as security for payment. An agent is not entitled to claim a lien over a client's documents. If you leave us owing money, you still get your passport and your certificates back, and we pursue the debt like anyone else would.

We must not disclose personal information relating to you or your affairs to a third person without your written consent, unless a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory requires it. That duty survives the end of the matter and applies to former clients.

We do not publish client stories, testimonials, examples or case studies identifying a client without that client's written consent, and we do not use a matter as marketing material because it went well.

How we handle personal information more generally is set out in our privacy policy.

We keep a client file for every client, containing the application, the service agreement, all written communications, records of what was said in conversations, invoices, receipts and your documents. We are required to keep it for seven years after the last action on it, and we cannot delete it on request during that period.

We make a written record of oral communications at the time, including the instructions you give us and the advice we give you. If you ever need to know what was said and when, it is on the file.

When we lodge anything for you we tell you in writing and send you a copy of what was lodged. We tell you promptly about material developments. We do not act in a way that causes unnecessary expense or delay.

Our response standards are set out on our contact page.

If you ask for an interpreter we will arrange an appropriately qualified one. The Code requires it. Any cost is quoted to you beforehand.

Migration law changes constantly, sometimes at a few days' notice. An agent is required to maintain their knowledge and skills, and continuing professional development is a condition of staying registered.

We keep a verified record of the legislative instruments, directions and policy that our advice rests on, and when a change lands we correct our own materials before we advise anyone from them.

We are required to hold professional indemnity insurance, and we do. Details are available on request.

Tell us first. Our complaints process is on our complaints page and it is a real process, not a formality.

If you are not satisfied, a complaint about the professional conduct of a registered migration agent may be made to the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority, which can investigate and can sanction an agent, including by suspending or cancelling registration. Complaining costs nothing and does not require a lawyer.

Complaining to us, or to the regulator, does not change how we act for you. You are entitled to do it and we would rather you did.