August 2016 Newsletter
Registrar update
In July, Menefata Toso was sentenced to 10 months’ home detention following a guilty plea and conviction in April. The 10 charges laid by the Authority related to two Samoan nationals trying to obtain lawful immigration status in New Zealand. This is the eighth prosecution taken by the Authority relating to victims in a Pacific community and sends a further message to this community that immigration advice can only be provided by licensed professionals or exempt people. We will continue to work to improve awareness in Pacific communities and to encourage people to speak to us.
Thank you all who have volunteered to take a student work placement. I am delighted that a number of the students eligible this semester have now secured a work placement, however there are places still available, particularly in Auckland.
We are seeing a steady inflow of new provisional licence applications with supervisors. Most supervisors are only supervising one person, with a small number supervising two. Most are also in the same location as the person they are supervising. We check all new supervision agreements, including the fees being charged, if any, prior to approving a provisional licence.
Catherine Albiston
Registrar of Immigration Advisers
Unlicensed adviser sentenced to home detention
A Porirua man was sentenced to ten months’ home detention at the Porirua District Court on 13 July 2016. The sentencing came after the man pleaded guilty in April to ten charges laid against him by the Immigration Advisers Authority.
Last chance to secure a student work placement in 2016
Student work placements for this semester need to be agreed by the end of August.
The work placement starts from 19 September. Students are required to spend around 10-12 hours per week for eight weeks in the work placement.
The work placement provides an opportunity for students to be exposed to a real immigration advice practice and to reflect on immigration matters and professional practice in a real-life situation.
Students in the following locations are looking for a work placement:
11 Auckland
1 Hastings
1 Shanghai, China
1 Beijing, China
1 Amritsar, India
If you are keen to have a student join your workplace, please email jeni.fountain@boppoly.ac.nz.
IAA webinars
In response to requests, we will run a further webinar in August on the Authority’s new CPD requirements:
Continuing Professional Development Requirements
Tuesday 23 August 2016 - 3pm - 5pm NZST
This webinar will talk through the CPD Toolkit covering all of the new CPD requirements. It is designed for all licensed advisers beginning to implement the new CPD requirements.
This is a repeat of the two webinars already run on CPD this year.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Supervising a provisional licence holder
Wednesday 14 September 2016 - 3pm - 5pm NZST
This webinar will talk through the Supervision Toolkit and cover what it means to be a good supervisor from the Authority’s point of view. It is designed for all licensed advisers who are considering becoming a supervisor or are currently a supervisor.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Not-for-profit scholarship
The Waiariki Bay of Plenty Polytechnic (the Polytechnic) is offering one scholarship in 2017 for a student of the Graduate Diploma in New Zealand Immigration Advice (Graduate Diploma) who intends to provide New Zealand immigration advice on a not-for-profit basis while working or volunteering for a not-for-profit organisation in New Zealand.
The scholarship will cover the student’s domestic tuition fees for one year for the Graduate Diploma.
Before applying to the Polytechnic for the scholarship, the applicant must have their not-for-profit status pre-approved by the Authority.
Applicants wishing to apply for a scholarship for 2017 must apply to the Authority for pre-approval by 1 October 2016.
Reference Group update
The Licensed Immigration Advisers Reference Group has met three times so far this year. The topics discussed have included the Graduate Diploma in New Zealand Immigration Advice, supervision and work placements, the English language review, the offshore student visa exemption, the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act review, the Authority’s inspections programme, the limits on unlicensed clerical staff, and communications initiatives. You can read the minutes from our meetings on our website under News.
New factsheets for education agents, education providers and others!
Check out our new factsheets for:
Education providers [PDF, 245 KB]
Licence renewal tips
Here are a couple of tips to help your licence renewal to go more smoothly:
- If you are mailing documents or a client file, please only send copies, not originals. We do not return documents submitted as part of a renewal application. As a licensed adviser you are required to keep copies of your client files for seven years. It is a breach of your Code responsibilities to send the only copy of a client file to the Authority as part of a renewal application.
- If you are changing your photograph, please upload a digital photo rather than a scanned paper photo. What you upload is what will appear on the register.
Did you know, under the 2014 Code…?
Clause 12 (b) requires that a supervisor must ensure that any fees charged for supervision are fair and reasonable in the circumstances.
The Registrar is required to approve all supervision arrangements before a provisional licence is granted and the fees being charged will be considered as part of that assessment.
Tribunal decisions
The Ministry of Justice has recently updated its website and how you search for a Tribunal decision has changed. Here are a couple of tips:
- When entering terms in the keyword search box, the search function will only pick up on words from the titles of decisions.
- If you enter the exact title of a decision in the keyword search box, the decision you are searching for will appear as the first decision in a list.
We apologise that as a result of this upgrade, the links to Tribunal decisions in the Authority’s Toolkits no longer work. These links will be restored in due course. In the meantime, you can copy the title of the decision and enter it in the keyword search box. The decision you are looking for should appear as the first in a list.
Reading Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal decisions will help develop your understanding of the standards expected of licensed immigration advisers.
Have you used our online CPD plan and record?
You can log-in at iaa.govt.nz to start or update your CPD plan for the year and record activities you complete. If this is the first time you are logging-in, you will need your activation code. Please contact us if you don’t have it.
Remember that you need to start following the new CPD requirements as soon as you renew your licence after 26 November 2015.
Our CPD Toolkit sets out all our requirements as well as extra guidance. You need to read and understand our CPD Toolkit in order to understand your obligations as a licensed immigration adviser.
