May 2016 newsletter
Registrar update
In April, a Porirua man working in the Samoan community was convicted for providing immigration advice without a licence. The Authority takes unlicensed advice seriously and we are continuously working to both educate people and hold unlicensed advisers to account.
Close to 300 licensed immigration advisers joined our April webinar on your continuing professional development requirements. The webinar will be repeated this month for those of you who missed it, and to cater for people in different time zones. This newsletter also covers some of the questions that were asked during the webinar.
As you know, this year’s Graduate Diploma students will all be required to find a supervisor before they may apply for a provisional licence. This newsletter includes some tips for both prospective supervisors and students. We will also be discussing supervision at this month’s licensed immigration adviser reference group. Feel free to contact me or one of the members, to include your views in this discussion.
I have previously acknowledged that there have been some delays in sending out wallet cards and licence certificates. I apologise to those who were affected by this and can assure you that our service is now back on track.
Catherine Albiston
Registrar of Immigration Advisers
You asked about .... continuing professional development (CPD)
Many advisers at our April CPD webinar asked if specific activities were acceptable.
One of the requirements for CPD activities to be acceptable is that they are related to either the Competency Standards or the Code of Conduct. When you are thinking about your CPD for the year ahead, it is a good idea to take a few minutes to re-read the Competency Standards and the Code of Conduct to remind yourself of your responsibilities and the wide range of areas you may wish to develop further in. For example, Competency Standard 6 includes:
- Understanding of professional, ethical, socially responsible and culturally sensitive behaviour and practice, and
- The ability to manage a business in accordance with local law.
Some advisers have asked how they can find out if there is a local study group in their area. You can use the location search function on our register(external link) to find advisers in your area and to contact them to find out about existing study groups or to propose setting one up.
Some new advisers commented that they were not aware of any providers conducting CPD on New Zealand immigration matters and asked for direction. The Authority does not approve or endorse CPD providers. As long as training is related to the Competency Standards or the Code of Conduct; relevant to your learning needs; interactive and verifiable, it is acceptable. There will be many different providers in countries around the world who offer CPD opportunities that meet these requirements.
There are some well-known CPD opportunities for New Zealand licensed immigration advisers, however, and in the spirit of being helpful these are listed in the table below. Any activity you undertake offered by one of these organisations must still meet the requirements as set out in the CPD Toolkit.
| Organisation | Activities |
|---|---|
| Immigration New Zealand | Seminars for local immigration advisers in INZ branches around the world. |
| New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) | Seminars and events |
| New Zealand Association of Immigration Professionals | Seminars and events |
| CCH Annual Immigration Law Conference | Annual immigration law conference |
| Bay of Plenty Polytechnic | The Graduate Diploma in New Zealand Immigration Advice which can be studied full-time or part-time |
| Bay of Plenty Polytechnic | A refresher training course which licensed advisers may enrol in |
| Bay of Plenty Polytechnic | Modules of the Graduate Certificate/Diploma in New Zealand Immigration Advice for CPD purposes. |
Webinar on the Authority's new CPD requirements
In May, we will run a free webinar on the Authority’s new CPD requirements. Note that this is a repeat of the webinar run in April:
Continuing Professional Development Requirements
Wednesday 18 May 2016 - 3.30pm – 5.30pm NZST
This webinar will talk through the CPD Toolkit covering all of the new CPD requirements. It is designed for all licensed advisers who are beginning, or about to begin, to implement the new CPD requirements.
Please register for this webinar here
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
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.
Look out for our ads in Indian and Filipino media
The IAA is advertising in Indian and Filipino print, online and radio media over the next three months.
Getting Your Guide to Licensed Advisers out and about
We recently updated “Your Guide to Licensed Immigration Advisers,” to reflect the IAA’s new look. We reached out to a number of our key stakeholders to see if they would like to receive a copy of the updated guide in any of the seven languages it is available.
The outreach was successful, with over 70 stakeholders requesting a total of 7,066 copies of the Guide. The requests for the guides came from Citizens Advice Bureaus and Community Law Centres across the country; universities and language schools; various NZ high commissions, embassies and visa application centres; and multicultural societies within New Zealand.
Read our Guide to Licensed Immigration Advisers in Hindi [PDF, 2.1 MB]
Read our Guide to Licensed Immigration Advisers in Punjabi [PDF, 1.9 MB]
Supervision
This year’s Graduate Diploma students must enter into a supervision arrangement with a full licence holder before they can apply for a provisional licence.
If you are an experienced full licence holder, we strongly encourage you to consider becoming a supervisor later this year. We have created a Supervision Toolkit and several helpful templates including a model supervision agreement, available on our website. Remember that under the Code of Conduct you must ensure that any fees charged for supervision are fair and reasonable in the circumstances.
If you are looking to supervise a new entrant you can contact the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic to advertise your availability. Details on how to do this are in our Supervision Toolkit.
You can count time spent supervising towards your 20 CPD hours each year.
In the Supervision Toolkit we encourage students to approach prospective supervisors in a highly professional way. Remember that not all licensed advisers will be in a position to be a supervisor and it may take some time before you find the right person for you. You are also likely to be more successful once you have completed at least half of the qualification.
Industry places on the Graduate Diploma in New Zealand Immigration Advice
The Bay of Plenty Polytechnic will reserve 25 places in the July intake of the Graduate Diploma in New Zealand Immigration Advice for people currently employed within immigration practices. These places can be either full-time or part-time.
To reserve an industry place in semester two 2016, your request must be received by 3 June 2016.
To reserve an industry place, the employer needs to contact Lynette Steele lynette.steele@boppoly.ac.nz and confirm that the employee:
- Has a formal employment relationship with their organisation.
- Will be required by their organisation to apply for an immigration adviser licence once they graduate.
Once an industry place has been offered to the employer’s organisation, the prospective student will need to apply and meet the academic and entry requirements of the programme before they can enrol and utilise the place reserved in their name.
Semester two of the Graduate Diploma starts on 18 July 2016.
Have you seen...?
... the new Employment Agreement Builder at www.business.govt.nz?
This tool guides you through the steps to create an agreement for your employees. You can tailor your agreements to fit each role and the needs of your business.
Have a look at the new Employment Agreement Builder tool(external link)
IAA online outage
There will be an outage to IAA online at some point in May while we make improvements to our services. We will email you to give you advance warning of the outage. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes.
New Tribunal decisions
Reading Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal decisions will help develop your understanding of the standards expected of licensed immigration advisers.
