Friday, February 15, 2013

5 Steps Leading to Become a Registered Migration Agent in Australia

By John Lawson


This information post explains the method of growing to be a migration agent in Australia. As stated by the Migration Act from 1958, any person who wishes to apply the wisdom or experience of migration processes and procedures to give help and guidance to a person wishing to acquire Australian permanent residency requires to become registered as a migration agent. Authorized body that assesses the application to turn into a migration agent in Australia is Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA).

1. This step lists individual tasks you need to follow before you decide to make application for registration and is in essence dealing with you being familiar with relevant migration laws. These are readily available for download from MARA website and include part 3 of the Migration Act from 1958, Migration Agents Registration Application Charge Act from 1997, Migration Agents Regulations 1998 and Migration Agents Registration Application Charge Regulations 1998.

Another important document worth considering is the Occupational Competency Standards for Migration Agents that describes how a registered agent should perform the specified activities to the standard as recommended by the existing agents. As far as the requirement for becoming a registered migration agent, you would either need to be an Australian Legal Practitioner or that you hold the Graduate Certificate in Australian Migration Law and Practice.

2. This step entails the actual application for registration. Application form is included in the initial registration application package that can be downloaded from MARA website. This form needs to be filled out entirely to avoid any delays in approval of the application. Application needs to be accompanied with following supporting documents: a proof of your professional indemnity insurance policy, evidence of competency, documents showing your English language knowledge and an Australia Federal Police (AFP) name check document.

Soon after all eleven pages of the form have been done, mandatory documentation compiled it's time to pay the application charges and send the application. It is well worth mentioning that the application amount is non refundable and it is $1,760 or $160 for business or non-commercial intentions respectively.

3. This step needs minimal contribution away from the applicant as the Migration Agent Registration Authority is processing your application. Assuming you mailed all the essential documentation with the application, it generally might take around 8 weeks for your application to be processed. The moment your application is processed but before it is accepted, your name will be cited on MARA web portal under intended applicants section.

4. Subsequent to your application actually being recognized the MARA department will email you with this news and generate your registration details on their own internet website and you will become a registered migration agent. You will be receiving the license of registration along with a copy of the code of conduct in less than 2 weeks from the certification date.

5. Should your application be refused, MARA department will notify you in writing and you will have the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) within 28 days. Making this appeal operation easier, related forms may be obtained from the internet site. If the appeal is yet refused, you would need to wait for at the very least 365 days before you apply to become registered migration agent again.




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