Canada and New Zealand require a licence for immigration advice abroad
Michael Mai
UK law covers only advice given in the UK and Australia's Home Affairs reads its law as not reaching unregistered offshore advice; Malta and Dominica list licensed agents and EB-5 promoters must register.
A Vietnamese family that pays an intermediary in Vietnam to prepare a Canadian or New Zealand residence application deals with someone those countries’ laws require to be authorised, wherever that person sits. UK law covers advice given in the UK; Australia’s Home Affairs reads its law as not reaching unregistered offshore advice. For investor routes, Malta and Dominica list licensed agents, and promoters in the US EB-5 programme must register.
Where each licence stops
| Country | Who may be paid to advise or file | Register | Reaches an adviser abroad? | Stated cost of an unlicensed adviser |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants licensees; members of a law society or the Chambre des notaires du Québec | College Public Register, with an “Entitled to Practise” column | Yes: section 91 has no territorial limit, and the federal immigration department says its rules apply wherever the person is | Offence, up to CAD 200,000 or 2 years (s.91(9)); application may be returned or refused |
| United Kingdom | Advisers registered with the Immigration Advice Authority; solicitors and other authorised professionals | Adviser Register: name, reference number, level | No: the Act covers advice given in the UK (s.82(2)) | Offence, up to 2 years (s.91); no money back from an unregulated adviser |
| Australia | Registered migration agents; Australian legal practitioners; exempt persons | Register of Migration Agents, which includes some agents abroad | Not for unregistered advice, on the Department’s May 2021 reading of Part 3 | Offence: 60 penalty units (s.280); up to 10 years for taking a fee (s.281) |
| New Zealand | Licensed individuals; New Zealand lawyers; other exempt persons | Online register, individuals only | Yes: section 8(1); only student-visa advice is exempt abroad | Offence, up to 7 years or NZD 100,000 (s.63); application not accepted (s.9) |
| United States | Attorneys; accredited representatives of recognised organisations; supervised law students; foreign attorneys for matters outside the US | None for consultants; state bars and a Department of Justice roster | No consultant licence exists | US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS): others cannot represent you or give legal advice. Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR): consultants who advise are breaking the law |
Canada and New Zealand: the rule travels
Section 91 of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act bars advising or representing for consideration in connection with an application unless the person belongs to the College, a law society or the Chambre des notaires du Québec, or meets one of two narrow exceptions; no sentence of it confines the bar to conduct in Canada.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says: These rules apply to anyone receiving payment for advice or representation, no matter where they are located. The College says: Immigration consultants providing Canadian immigration or citizenship services in countries other than Canada are subject to Canadian law.
IRCC adds that an application filed through an unauthorised representative, in Canada or abroad, may be returned or refused.
New Zealand’s Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007 applies to advice given outside the country (section 8(1)), allows charges wherever the offence occurred (section 73) and bars Immigration New Zealand from accepting an application prepared by an unlicensed agent (section 9). The Immigration Advisers Authority says: This includes people giving New Zealand immigration advice from China, India or anywhere in the world.
The one carve-out abroad is advice on student visas only (section 11(h)); the Authority says it excludes pathways to work or residence. Companies cannot be licensed, only individuals, so the adviser, not the firm, is the entry to look for.
The UK and Australia: the rule stops
The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 regulates advice given by a person in the United Kingdom in the course of a business, whether the client is in the UK or elsewhere. The Immigration Advice Authority, formerly the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, reads this in its practice note of August 2025 as covering only advice given by an organisation or individual in the UK.
Australia makes it an offence to give immigration assistance unless registered, and for an unregistered person to ask for or take a fee for it (Migration Act 1958, sections 280 and 281). The Department of Home Affairs’ May 2021 review paper says: The Australian Government has no jurisdiction over unregistered immigration assistance conducted offshore, as Part 3 of the Act does not have extraterritorial effect.
The same paper records that Canada’s and New Zealand’s frameworks apply offshore. A search of Part 3 as compiled on 8 October 2026 turned up no clause extending it abroad, and no later government statement was found. A Home Affairs form (No. 1463, which concerns a protection-visa condition) also notes that an ID number given to some overseas agents does not mean registration.
The United States has no licence for consultants. Section 292.1 of Title 8 of the Code of Federal Regulations provides: Except as set forth in this section, no other person or persons shall represent others in any case. USCIS says others may give limited help with forms for a nominal fee but cannot give legal advice.
Investor routes: the list behind the person who files
The US statute behind EB-5 requires promoters, including migration agents, to register with USCIS and lets the Secretary make the registration public. None of the USCIS pages read provides a lookup of registered promoters. A proposal by the Department of Homeland Security of 2 July 2026 would require registration before any promotion; it is not final.
In Malta every application must go through an agent, and an agent may serve applicants only if named on the public register (S.L. 217.26, regulations 4(1) and 6(2)). Only public accountants or auditors, lawyers and licensed financial advisers qualify to apply; licences renew yearly after due diligence and need indemnity cover of at least EUR 500,000.
The agency’s list showed 93 licences on 5 November 2026. Regulation 7(5) holds agents responsible for their employees, assistants or associates, and no provision names introducers or sub-agents. Regulation 25 lets the Agency pay agents promotional support for successful applications that end in a certificate, on criteria the Minister approves.
Dominica’s 2024 Regulations send every application through an Authorised Agent, who must be a citizen of Dominica and either live there or have a main office registered there with at least three staff. A Licenced Promoter markets under a written agreement with an agent, promotional material must show a valid licence number, and the agent answers for what its promoters publish (regulations 4(4), 12, 13 and 15(3)).
The Citizenship by Investment Unit lists 35 Authorised Agents, its Licenced Promoters and 8 names it says are not agents or promoters. The entries read carry names and contact details; none carries a licence number to set against the one a promoter must display.
The Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority (ECCIRA), set up by a 2025 agreement of five governments, was designed to oversee such lists. Its founding Agreement covers marketing agents within or outside a participating state, but its own site says it will begin operations in Grenada in late 2026.
Under Dominica’s Act No. 8 of 2025, deemed in force from 1 July 2026 by order (see an earlier piece on the Regulations), existing agents and promoters are provisionally prequalified for nine months while they reapply.
What the agencies list as warning signs
| Sign | What the agency says |
|---|---|
| A guarantee or a fast track | Home Affairs (Australia): a provider who says they can fast-track or guarantee a visa is lying and may be trying to scam you. USCIS: Remember, only USCIS can determine whether to expedite processing. |
| Influence over the decision | College (Canada): No one can influence the outcome of your immigration application. New Zealand’s Immigration Advisers Authority: stay away from anyone who claims personal contacts at Immigration New Zealand. |
| Money and paperwork | College: Avoid paying in cash. New Zealand’s Immigration Advisers Authority: stay away from anyone who asks you to sign before the application is filled out. |
| An investment sold with guarantees | US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and USCIS, 9 October 2013: Guarantees of the receipt or timing of a visa or green card are warning signs of fraud. |
What a register cannot tell an applicant in Vietnam
- A register lists whoever holds the licence, not whether the person across the table is that person; the College advises using the contact details on its register.
- On the readings above, an unregistered intermediary in Vietnam advising on a UK or Australian visa is beyond the reach of those countries’ regulators.
- For Malta the regulations name the licensed agent and not the seller.
What this article has not established
No register was searched for any person, so nothing here says whether a particular intermediary is licensed.
No Vietnamese rule on licensing intermediaries for foreign residence or citizenship routes turned up in two web searches restricted to government and legal-database domains; none was read.
The IRCC list of penalised representatives, the instruments of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia, and the text of the UK’s 2025 Act were not read.
The Legation Times writes its content from published documents; nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice. Spotted an error? Send a correction request; for content rights, send a takedown request.
