Complain about an unlicensed immigration adviser
Providing New Zealand immigration advice when not licensed or exempt is an offence under New Zealand law - but you will not face any penalties by making a complaint about someone who is doing this. In fact, your complaint could help us to stop illegal immigration advisers from operating.
Make a complaint
To make a complaint about an unlicensed immigration adviser simply email us and include the following details:
- About the Complaint
- Who the Adviser was
- Your contact details (optional)
It is important that you know there is no cost to make complaints, and making a complaint about an unlicensed adviser will not impact your immigration status in any way.
Before you make a complaint
- Anyone can make a complaint - you do not need to be the person who received the immigration advice in order to make a complaint.
- You do not need to be in New Zealand when you make your complaint. It can be submitted from anywhere.
- Providing us with as much detailed information about what happened as possible means that we will be better able to investigate and, potentially progress the matter further.
- It is possible to make an anonymous complaint about an unlicensed adviser, however please note that this does restrict our ability to follow up with you to ask for further information or to advise any outcomes.
- Investigations against unlicensed advisers generally can take 3 months to over a year to process. The timeframe depends on several factors such as the number of people involved, the detail of evidence available to prove the offending, and the level of harm.
After you've made a complaint
- Once you have made your complaint, we will review it to make sure it has the correct information. If it does, we’ll assign an investigator, who may also contact you with updates or questions about the complaint.
- We use a range of regulatory tools to address the offending of unlicensed advisers, and we may prosecute individuals who are in breach of the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007.
- Providing New Zealand immigration advice when neither licensed nor exempt is an offence under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act.
- Prosecutions require a high standard of evidence and must be in the public interest as anyone found breaking the law can face 7 years in prison and a fine of up to NZ$100,000.