Thursday May 3, 2007

The representative body for immigration advisers (NZAMI) has welcomed a law designed to regulate the industry. Parliament last night passed legislation requiring immigration agents to operate under licence or face a fine of up to $100,000 and/or seven years in gaol.

The New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) describes the passing of the Immigration Advisors Licensing Bill as an important step towards attaining fair and honest treatment for would-be migrants.

?"We have been campaigning for a licensing system since 1999. Although we have concerns both over the time this step has taken and over some important details of the legislation, we are delighted that parliament has now clearly accepted the need for a regulatory regime," says the NZAMI's Chairman, Bernard Walsh.

Mr Walsh says the NZAMI is looking forward to working with the regulatory authority to be created under the new law and hopes that a suitable appointment will be made in the very near future. "Two obvious areas for close cooperation will be the development of a code of ethics for all migration advisers and of a system for educating them about the requirements of the new legislation. 

"The NZAMI has its own stringent code of ethics, which has proved its worth and should make a good starting point for the development of a legally-binding code.  We also have a well-established network, which already plays a useful role in up-skilling the profession.

"We remain concerned, however, over the large number of immigration advisers who will remain outside the regulatory framework. For example, lawyers acting as immigration advisers are to be exempt from the licensing requirement because they are already governed by rules of professional conduct.  "There is, nevertheless, a case for lawyers and other exempt professions to be included in the regime, as their inclusion would reinforce the new system's integrity and reduce misunderstanding on the part of prospective migrants," he says.

Mr Walsh adds that it's even more crucial for education agents, who recruit students offshore, to be brought under the regulatory regime. He describes their current exemption as defying logic, as so many young people initially enter New Zealand under student visas and subsequently apply for residence. 

"By making a large number of groups exempt from licensing, the new law has placed the burden of funding its operations on the shoulders of a very small number of practitioners. There are many thousands of people providing immigration advice in one form or another but we estimate that all but 400 practitioners will be exempted from compliance.

"We remain concerned that a proposed levy on licensed immigration advisers will drive many operators underground, frustrating the intent of the new legislation.  We hope that government will bear this concern in mind when implementing this law," he says.