The Blind Leading The Blind?

It would be fair to say that I am not a big fan of our licensing regime, (Immigration Advisers Authority) but not for the reasons you might think. Licensing itself is a good idea and when it was rolled out, over ten years ago, I was very much in favour of the idea. A regulatory body to oversee the provision of immigration advice, to set standards and to recognise those who had worked and excelled in their profession.

The problem is, I am not sure if that is what we ended up with.

A good licensing scheme works to improve the industry that it regulates, but since the time of its inception, I don’t believe that the Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA) has done enough to improve the industry and certainly not if I measure that against the fees that I pay annually to hold a license.

The system was primarily designed to protect migrants, from rogue operators and to ensure that only those individuals, suitably qualified and experienced were in a position to provide advice to people considering one of the biggest moves they will ever make. Migrating is complex, costly and if done wrong has disastrous consequences - so any system that helps to protect the people going through it and tries to ensure the advice they receive is one we want to see working well.

The current system however, leaves far too much room for migrants to miss out on that correct and proper advice and rather ironically creates a system whereby advisers who are starting out in this industry can be just as vulnerable. If you are considering the move, and looking to secure some advice, a good place to start is in understanding how the licensing regime works and what to look out for when selecting that particular person, to hold your hand throughout the process.

Is Your Adviser Licensed?

Might sound like a strange question, but there are still plenty of unlicensed cowboys out there.

Our Licensing Scheme

I have been working in this industry for 20 odd years with a chunk of that time being prior to the licensing regime (which was rolled out between 2007 and 2009) and the other period, spent as a licensed adviser. As I came back in to the industry just after licensing was introduced, I have had the benefit of working as a supervised adviser as well as a full adviser, so I have seen how the system operates in its entirety. I have also been involved with the licensing process as a reference group member, working within the machinery of Government (not somewhere I fancy going back to).

The system was originally introduced as a means to ‘tidy things up’ and to ensure that applicant’s using the services of someone claiming to be a professional, were protected by an overarching regulatory system. To achieve that, the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act (2007) was established, followed by the regulations in 2008. The delivery arm of this legislation is the Immigration Advisers Authority and in the background is another organisation called the New Zealand Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal - responsible for determining complaints and then handing down penalties.

As part of the roll out of this regime, the IAA created a qualification pathway for budding LIA’s to complete and a process for supervision, where LIA’s undertaking the course or those who had completed it, would be supervised for a specific period to allow them to gain the practical experience required to deliver good immigration advice.

All sounds quite reasonable, and yet we still see plenty of cowboys out there, dispensing poor advice and potentially destroying lives along the way.

There are three flaws with the system as I see it and the first (possibly the biggest) is that there are are some rather odd exemptions to the regime, the most notable of which is anyone offshore, providing advice solely on Student Visa applications. We see the effects of this all the time, where so called “Education Agents” sell potential courses to willing applicants, usually as a means to another form of Visa in NZ, e.g. complete this course and you will be able to go on to work or live here. The reality is that most of these “Agents” are actually providing advice well beyond the Student Visa, and more often than not it is wrong. However there are scores of applicant’s who believe the sales pitch, buy the process and end up stuck here, usually having used up their funding and with no pathway forward or to stay here (despite being sold that dream). In my view, this exemption shouldn’t exist and as hard as it might be to police offshore operators, they shouldn’t be given a free pass to operate as they do now.

The second issue is the supervision process, which the IAA has tried to get involved with, but largely failed. There are good operators out there who provide solid and robust supervision to up and coming LIA’s (I have provided that service on many occasions and am doing so now). However on the other side of the equation are LIA’s who offer to provide supervision for a fee (often very large fees). The effort they put in is often limited to the speed at which they can cash their cheques. They provide limited or no actual supervision, leaving the provisional license holder to work things out on their own, leading to clients being given well intentioned, but often very inaccurate advice.

The last issue, is the lack of real, practical and useful advice that the IAA offers to the industry as a means to improve. Regrettably when this system was set up the legislation was based on protecting the migrant, rather than having an equal focus on ensuring the quality of the representatives within it. Despite paying a very hefty annual licensing fee (one of the most expensive of all regulated occupations in NZ), I see very little value in it. Obviously someone has to pay for the IAA to hunt down the rogue operators, and unfortunately it ends up being the good operators footing the bill.

The IAA remit should be broadened to focus not just on the consumer (the applicant) but also work to improve the quality of the industry as well - and more can be done. As a starting point, the supervision process could be overhauled, and if I were in that particular hot seat, I would be taking a good hard look at the way the process work in terms of fees changing hands.

Rubber Stamping

Rubber-stamped applications can be declined by INZ, even if the client was unaware.

No License - No Visa

What many applicants may not be aware of, until it is too late, is that using an unlicensed person to assist with your Visa, or someone who is not exempt from the licensing process, is grounds for INZ to decline your application. In fact we have a whole section of the rule book devoted to that issue. Of course there are plenty of rogue operators out there who know this and instead of putting their names on the application form, they might have engaged (usually through some form of payment) a licensed adviser to “rubber stamp” the application. INZ will think you have been represented by a licensed adviser, when in fact all that person has done is signed off on the form.

This is a process that both the IAA and INZ take very seriously and can lead to either the person doing the stamping, being fined or losing their license, but more importantly the applicant being declined a Visa. Even if you had no idea, the law tends to fall more heavily on the side of INZ than you…and unless you can convincingly prove you were “duped”, your application could be in trouble.

This scenario is more common than you think and very common in particular countries, almost always happening offshore. Even though you still have to be licensed to provide advice, if you are offshore, it can be very hard for the IAA to police and any penalties or sanctions are extremely hard to enforce.

As an applicant, there are some really simple things you can do to find out that the adviser you are working with is both legally allowed to do so and is not putting you at risk of having a declined application.

Firstly, the adviser should very clearly display their “IAA License” in all correspondence with you. It should be confirmed your agreement (contract) when you engage them and with that number you can very quickly check the www.iaa.govt.nz website to confirm it is current.

You may deal with other people that are assisting the adviser from time to time on administrative tasks (filling in forms, setting invoices and so forth) and that is fine, but your main point of contact and the person, giving you the advice and instructions, should hold either a provisional or full license.

If you are working with a provisional license holder, there is nothing wrong with that, but make sure they have advised you as to who their supervisor is (they are supposed to do that anyway). You can also ask what their supervision arrangements are and who is checking the work before submission.

The key is to use the resources available that the IAA does offer and to do a bit of “due diligence” before you engage the services of any adviser. Online reviews can be useful, but you have to take these with a pinch of salt as well.

I am a big supporter of people entering in to this industry and building a great career helping others, I just hope that over time, the industry can have more influence in terms of how that process works and how the regulator can do things more effectively to not only protect migrants but also some of the advisers as well.

Until next week.