Amendment to the Migration Agent Regulations 1998
2 April 2005 and 1 July 2005 - Legislation change
Client summary
With effect from 2 April 2005 the Migration Agent Regulations 1998 have been amended to:
- prescribe the circumstances when personal information about migration agents may be disclosed by DIMIA or a review authority to a professional body
- require applicants for registration as a migration agent to publish a 'notice of intention to register', in either an Australian newspaper or a newspaper published in a language other than English as approved by the Migration Agents Regulation Authority (MARA) in a prescribed manner
- require applicants to publish the above information on the MARA web site, for a period of at least 30 days
- require registered migration agents to include their name and Migration Agents Registration Number on advertisements which advertise their services
- expand the definition of advertising to include advertising on the internet
- require migration agents to keep all documents relating to the application for a period of seven years after the last date of the last action on file from the client
- prescribe certain procedures that agents must follow when a migration agent terminates their services to a client
- provide agents with clear guidelines as to what documents they must include in the professional library that they are required to maintain under the Migration Agents Code of Conduct
- enable the MARA to publish information about sanction decisions with regard to former registered migration agents, where an agent is found to have engaged in vexatious activity
- include a reference to the Criminal Code Act 1995 in the Migration Agent Code of Conduct
- ensure that the terminology used to describe migration advice profession is consistent.
With effect from 1 July 2005 the Migration Agent Regulations 1998 have been amended to require agents to provide the MARA with average fee information on an annual basis, at the time of making an application for re-registration.
Technical details
Some amendments are consequential to amendments to the Act, stemming from the Migration Legislation Amendment (Migration Agents Integrity Measures) Act 2004 or are other non-controversial amendments. One amendment also gives effect to the recommendations of the 2001-02 Review of Statutory Self-Regulation of the Migration Advice Industry review report
Additional information: Nil.
Transitional arrangements: Nil.
Forms: Nil.
Instructions: Nil.
Effect on delegations: Nil.
Effect on systems: Nil.