Dealing With Australian Migration Agents – Know Your Rights!

Here at Austral Migration Consultancy, we work hard in making sure our Australian migration practice complies to Australian law as per the Australian Migration Act 1958 (Cth) as well as the migration agent’s Code of Conduct prescribed in Schedule 2, Regulation 8 of the Migration Agents Regulations 1998 (Cth).

Although we have put in the effort, there are many agencies out there who do not have valid licenses to operate or are circumventing the rules in some way or another.

As a legally registered migration agency, we want you to know your rights and how to do a quick check to see if the agency you are dealing with is legitimate.

BEFORE YOU MEET THEM.

1) Check their website and record down all MARA numbers displayed

• This information must be displayed by law on their website
• It is usually on the ‘about’, ‘certification’, ‘qualification’ pages or at the very bottom of their website in the footer
• It usually looks like this:

2) Go to https://www.mara.gov.au/search-the-register-of-migration-agents/

Put the MARA number numbers displayed on their website into the search field labelled ‘Migration Agents Registration Number (MARN)’

WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK OUT FOR?

1) No MARA number displayed on the website

This is a breach of the Migration Agent’s Code of Conduct. It could mean they are not licensed and you should be cautious

2) If the search results from the MARA website come back with 0 results this could mean:

• The MARA number listed on their website is fake
• The agent’s registration has expired and he cannot legally submit applications as a migration agent

3) If the search results come back with a valid result

• Check to see if the person is listed for many different business entities (with different business names) – this could mean he is not an in-house agent, instead they could be renting their license from an external agent and may be less trained in migration law
• If you see under ‘current status’ it says ‘registered under TTMRA’ – this means they are registered as a New Zealand migration agent and not necessarily trained in Australia. The Australian government recognises New Zealand migration agents but they are trained primarily in New Zealand migration law

EXTRA CHECKS (NEW ZEALAND)

If they display a New Zealand license number that looks like this:

You can check their status at https://iaa.ewr.govt.nz/PublicRegister/Search.aspx using their ‘adviser number’.

If the status says ‘refused’ it means that the New Zealand government has refused to renew their license due to a breach in their practice with New Zealand immigration.

In this case it means that they can’t act as a migration agent for New Zealand.

WHY DOES ALL THIS MATTER?

We act as part of a group of 1500+ migration agents from around the world who are educating consumers on this matter and to protect the image of our industry.

We meet thousands of people a year and have heard countless stories about people engaging scam or non-licensed agencies to handle their cases.

More often than not, something goes wrong and the person loses not just time, but money as well.

And the worst thing is that there was nothing they could do about it afterwards – the Australian government can’t take action against unlicensed agents.

We do not want this to happen to you!