The Immigration Advisers Authority can select any licensed immigration adviser for inspection under section 57 of the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007, usually at renewal. You are notified up to two months before expiry, and the notice typically requires a client file of the Authority’s choosing plus your CPD record.
Key facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Regulator | Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA); statutory decisions are made by the Registrar of Immigration Advisers |
| Disciplinary body | Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal (IACDT), administered by the Ministry of Justice |
| Inspection power | Sections 56 and 57, Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007 |
| Who can be selected | Every licence holder. The IAA states that “all advisers are eligible for an inspection” |
| When you find out | The inspection notice is sent with the renewal reminder, up to two months before your licence expires |
| Central document | A client file chosen by the IAA from applications you have lodged with Immigration New Zealand |
| Processing time | Fast track: 5 working days. Inspection stream: 25 working days |
| Failing to comply | Offence under section 69, fine up to $10,000 |
| Maximum Tribunal penalty | $10,000 under section 51(1)(f), plus refunds, compensation and costs |
| Complaints, 2024/25 | 72 received, 30 referred to the Tribunal, 23 upheld, 1 dismissed |
Who reviews an immigration adviser’s practice: the IAA or the Tribunal?
Two different bodies. The Immigration Advisers Authority, acting through the Registrar of Immigration Advisers, licenses advisers, inspects practices and investigates complaints. The Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal is a separate judicial body that hears complaints referred to it by the Registrar and imposes sanctions.
The split matters because the two use different tools. The Registrar’s tools are administrative: grant, refuse, renew, downgrade, cancel for unfitness under section 27(1)(da), and inspect under section 57. The Tribunal’s tools are disciplinary and are set out in section 51. The Registrar cannot fine you. The Tribunal cannot renew your licence. Complaints never go straight to the Tribunal; they reach it only through the Registrar.
How does a complaint reach the IAA, and what happens next?
Any person may complain to the Registrar about a licensed adviser, or about someone who was licensed within the previous two years. Complaints must be in writing, name the complainant and state the subject matter. The Registrar may reject the complaint, treat it as trivial, suggest your internal complaints procedure, or refer it to the Tribunal.
The grounds are set out in section 44(2): negligence, incompetence, incapacity, dishonest or misleading behaviour, or a breach of the Code of Conduct. Anonymous complaints are not permitted. Since 30 March 2025 a complaint must also state whether the complainant tried your own complaints procedure first and what came of it, which puts your clause 15 procedure into the record from the start. Before referring anything, the Registrar must notify you in writing and give you a reasonable opportunity to respond, and may gather further information using the same section 57 inspection powers.
The Registrar can also start a complaint without anyone else asking. Section 46 allows an own-motion complaint, which the Tribunal then determines in the same way as any other. In 2024/25 the IAA received 72 complaints about licensed advisers, referred 30 to the Tribunal, and the Tribunal upheld 23 and dismissed 1.
What is a section 57 inspection, and who gets selected?
An inspection is the Registrar’s statutory power to require documents, question people and enter premises where an adviser works or has worked in the past two years. Sections 56 and 57 allow it for administering the licensing regime, investigating complaints, assessing licence applications and investigating offences. The IAA says all advisers are eligible.
Most renewals never reach this point. The IAA runs a fast-track renewal process for the majority of advisers, and a fully complete fast-track application may be approved instantaneously. If you are selected for inspection instead, the notice arrives with the renewal reminder up to two months before expiry, and is issued under section 57. The fee and levy are the same either way.
Two details catch people out. First, if an adviser who was required to be inspected lets the licence expire rather than renewing, they will be inspected when they reapply; the inspection does not go away. Second, section 20 expressly allows an inspection to be used as a method of determining competence, so an inspection is not merely a paperwork audit.
What documents will the IAA ask me to produce?
The inspection notice sets out what you must provide. It may include a client file of the IAA’s choosing, your CPD plan and record, bank statements and the client account ledger if you have taken client funds in advance, and, for provisional licence holders, a full set of supervision documents.
| Document | What is required | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Client file | A file chosen by the IAA from applications you lodged with INZ, tracing the matter from first contact to resolution, in English with translations where needed | All selected advisers |
| CPD plan and record | At least 20 hours per 12-month licensing period, including mandatory activities, for the period stated in the notice | All selected advisers |
| Client account records | Bank statements in consecutive date order with no gaps, plus a client account ledger showing date, type, amount, client name, purpose and invoice number | Advisers who take client funds in advance |
| Form 301A | Supervision Arrangement Application (Inspection Renewal) | Provisional licence holders |
| Supervision agreement | Signed by all parties and approved by the Registrar, with the professional development plan | Provisional licence holders |
| Supervision minutes | Minutes of supervision meetings for the period stated, signed by both parties | Provisional licence holders |
| Client file list | Current and closed files including initial consultations that did not proceed, signed and dated by the supervisor | Provisional licence holders |
| Reflections | Written reflections from both adviser and supervisor on how the arrangement has worked | Provisional licence holders |
| Evidence of changed practice | A cover letter and evidence, if a previous renewal required a change in business practice | Advisers previously issued an improvement letter |
Because the client file is requested under section 57, you and the client do not need to complete a client authorisation and declaration. The Authority’s power to see the file does not depend on your client’s consent. The statute is also blunt about timing: under section 57(2), a person required to produce documents for inspection must immediately comply.
What is the IAA actually looking for in the client file?
Completeness first, then competence. The Registrar expects the file to trace the matter end to end, from first contact to resolution. The assessor then reads it against the Immigration Adviser Competency Standards, looking at eligibility assessment, timeliness, lodgement, follow-up, communication of decisions, the written agreement and quality assurance.
The completeness list mirrors clause 26(a) of the Code: the full application and supporting documents, evidence of the decision, all written agreements and changes, all written communications including file notes of material oral communications, all invoices and receipts, copies of personal documents supplied, and evidence of the safe return of originals.
The competence questions are more searching, and they are published. Competency 4.3 asks whether the file shows you recognise and work within time limits and respond promptly to correspondence from INZ, the client and third parties. Competency 6.7 asks whether the written agreement shows a full description of services, a clear payment schedule and a refund policy. Competency 6.8 asks: does the adviser understand and apply quality assurance techniques such as checklists, peer review, case reviews, supervision and team briefings?
That last one is the Registrar asking, in plain terms, whether the practice has a system.
What can come out of an inspection?
Five outcomes. The assessor recommends to the Registrar that no further action be taken, that you receive an improvement or change in business practice letter, that an own-motion complaint go to the Tribunal, that your application be refused, or that you be granted a provisional licence instead of a limited or full one.
The improvement letter is the most common consequence of minor findings, and it carries a tail. It sets out the issues and the steps you are expected to take, and you must demonstrate at your next renewal that you have addressed them. If you cannot, the IAA may refuse the renewal, downgrade you from a full to a limited or provisional licence, or make a complaint to the Tribunal.
An own-motion complaint is recommended where the assessor is satisfied a breach may have occurred and it is recurring or serious. The decision to lodge it belongs to the Registrar.
What sanctions can the Tribunal impose, and what is the maximum fine?
Section 51 sets out the full list: caution or censure, required training, suspension, a downgrade of licence type, cancellation, an order preventing reapplication, a penalty of up to $10,000, costs of the investigation or hearing, a refund of fees, and reasonable compensation. The $10,000 cap applies only to the penalty.
| Sanction | Section | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Caution or censure | 51(1)(a) | Published with the decision |
| Specified training or remedy of a deficiency | 51(1)(b) | If you fail to satisfy the Registrar within the period set, the licence is deemed cancelled under s 51(4) |
| Suspension for the unexpired period of the licence | 51(1)(c) | Replaced 30 March 2025 |
| Suspension until the Registrar is satisfied conditions are met | 51(1)(ca) | Inserted 30 March 2025 |
| Downgrade of licence type | 51(1)(cb) | Inserted 30 March 2025 |
| Cancellation of licence | 51(1)(d) | |
| Order preventing reapplication | 51(1)(e) | For a specified period, until conditions are met, or until lifted under s 51A |
| Penalty | 51(1)(f) | Not exceeding $10,000 |
| Costs of the investigation, inquiry or hearing | 51(1)(g) | Recoverable as a debt due to the Crown |
| Refund of fees or expenses | 51(1)(h) | Enforceable as a District Court order |
| Reasonable compensation | 51(1)(i) | Enforceable as a District Court order |
The numbers in real decisions show why the $10,000 headline understates the exposure. In KZ v Ma [2026] NZIACDT 31, the sanctions decision following KZ v Ma [2026] NZIACDT 19, the Tribunal imposed censure, an order preventing reapplication for two years, an $8,000 penalty and a $3,900 refund. One of the six upheld grounds was a failure to provide the Authority with complete copies of the client’s immigration matters, in breach of clauses 26(a)(i) and 26(e).
Record-keeping failures are not treated as administrative untidiness. In INZ (Kindl) v Zhou [2026] NZIACDT 35, where an adviser had lost client communications with a mislaid mobile phone, the Tribunal held: “The loss of her phone is not a justification for her failure to retain them and make them available for inspection by the Authority. The retention of a ‘paper trail’ is an important feature of consumer protection.”
There is a more encouraging data point in the same corpus. In INZ (Watson) v Wan [2026] NZIACDT 44, the Tribunal recorded in mitigation that the adviser had “implemented the learning with new practice management and systems within the agency” before settling on a $4,000 penalty. Systems are treated as evidence of remediation, not just prevention.
Am I responsible for what my unlicensed staff do?
Yes. A licence is personal: it may not be transferred and may not vest in anyone other than the person it was granted to. Employing or contracting an unlicensed person as an immigration adviser is an offence, and the Tribunal has upheld complaints against advisers who let unlicensed staff do advice work.
Section 68 creates two offences. Doing it knowingly carries up to two years’ imprisonment or a $10,000 fine, or both. Doing it without that knowledge carries a fine of up to $10,000, with a defence available where you did not know advice was being provided and had exercised all reasonable care and due diligence to ensure it was not. Section 68(2) closes the obvious gap: if the Registrar or an Authority appointee has told you in writing within the previous 12 months that a person is neither licensed nor exempt, you are deemed to know it.
The line is drawn by section 7. Clerical work (itself defined in section 5), translation, interpreting and settlement services are not immigration advice. Tailoring publicly available information to an individual’s circumstances is. In XL v Zhu [2026] NZIACDT 34 the Tribunal rejected an adviser’s argument that an unlicensed employee had merely passed on her instructions, found the employee had been engaged in immigration advice work, and upheld a breach of clause 3(c).
If you supervise a provisional licence holder, note that the inspection reaches you too. The supervision minutes, the client file list and the reflections all have to be signed by the supervisor.
How should I prepare before the inspection notice arrives?
By assuming any file could be chosen. The IAA picks from applications you have lodged with INZ, so the standard has to hold across the whole practice, not one showcase file. The practical test is whether a file assembled today would satisfy clause 26 without reconstruction.
| Check | What good looks like | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| One file per client, chronological | Every matter has a single retrievable file; nothing lives only in an inbox, a phone or a personal drive | Code cl 26(a), cl 26(d) |
| Written agreement and every variation | Signed or accepted in writing, with a tailored description of services, fees, disbursements and a refund policy | Code cl 18, cl 19, Competency 6.7 |
| Written communications captured | Emails, letters and messaging threads on the file, plus file notes of material oral communications | Code cl 26(a)(iii) |
| Lodgement confirmed in writing | The client was told in writing when the application was lodged, with ongoing timely updates | Code cl 26(b) |
| Material discussions confirmed | Advice given verbally is followed by a written confirmation to the client | Code cl 26(c) |
| Invoices and receipts | An invoice each time a fee or disbursement is payable, with a full description of the services | Code cl 22, cl 23 |
| Original documents | A record of what you hold, when it arrived and evidence of safe return, such as a courier confirmation or a signed receipt | Code cl 26(a)(vi), cl 27(b) |
| Retention | Every closed file kept for no less than seven years from closing, and still accessible | Code cl 26(e) |
| CPD | 20 hours logged per licensing period with the mandatory activities, plan and record retained for up to three years | IAA CPD requirements |
| Client funds | If you take money in advance, a separate client account, consecutive statements and a ledger tying each transaction to an invoice | Code cl 25, inspection notice |
| Supervision | Approved agreement in place at all times, meeting minutes signed, file list maintained | Code cl 11 to cl 13 |
The uncomfortable truth in that list is that most of it cannot be produced retrospectively. A file note of a material discussion written eleven months later is not the same document, and the Tribunal can usually tell. This is the argument for capturing the record at the moment the obligation arises rather than at renewal, which is the design principle behind the Clerq compliance suite.
None of this is legal advice. If you have received an inspection notice raising competency concerns, or a letter notifying you of a complaint, get your own advice before you respond.
Frequently asked questions
Can the IAA turn up at my office unannounced? Section 57(1)(a) allows a person authorised by the Registrar to enter, at any reasonable time, any premises where they have good cause to suspect a licensed or former licensed adviser works or has worked in the past two years. In practice the IAA states it will inform you if it intends to carry out an on-site inspection. Most inspections are document based and run alongside a renewal application.
Does being selected for inspection mean I am in trouble? No. The IAA describes inspections as an educative tool used to administer the licensing regime and identify deficiencies in an adviser’s practices. All advisers are eligible for inspection. An inspection is not a complaint, although an inspection can lead to one if the assessor finds serious or recurring breaches.
What happens if I cannot produce the client file the IAA asks for? Failing to comply with a requirement under section 57 is an offence under section 69, carrying a fine of up to $10,000. Separately, clause 26(e) of the Code requires each client file to be kept for no less than seven years from closing and made available for inspection on request. In KZ v Ma [2026] NZIACDT 31 the Tribunal upheld a ground of complaint for failing to provide the Authority with complete copies of the client’s immigration matters.
How much can the Tribunal fine me? Section 51(1)(f) caps a penalty at $10,000. That cap applies only to the penalty. The Tribunal can separately order a refund of fees, reasonable compensation to the complainant, and payment of the costs of the investigation, inquiry or hearing, and those orders are enforceable as if they were District Court orders.
Is my firm licensed, or am I? You are. Section 25 provides that a licence may not be transferred and may not vest by operation of law in any person other than the person to whom it was granted. Firms are not licensed. Every obligation in the Code attaches to the individual adviser.
Can I appeal an inspection outcome or a Tribunal sanction? Yes. Under section 81 you may appeal to the District Court against a refusal to license you, a decision to grant only a limited or provisional licence, and any Tribunal decision imposing a sanction under section 51(1)(a) to (i). Notice of appeal must be given within 20 working days of the decision being communicated to you, unless the District Court allows further time.
Sources
- IAA, Being selected for inspection (checked 10 August 2026)
- IAA, Renew your licence (checked 10 August 2026)
- IAA, Enforcement policy (checked 10 August 2026)
- IAA, Complain about a licensed immigration adviser (checked 10 August 2026)
- IAA, Annual statistics (checked 10 August 2026)
- IAA, CPD requirements (checked 10 August 2026)
- IAA, Code of Conduct toolkit: file management (checked 10 August 2026)
- Licensed Immigration Advisers Code of Conduct 2014 (PDF) (checked 10 August 2026)
- Immigration Advisers Competency Standards 2016 (PDF), source for competencies 4.3, 6.7 and 6.8 (checked 10 August 2026)
- IAA, Who needs a licence (checked 10 August 2026)
- Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007 (full text) (checked 10 August 2026)
- Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal (checked 10 August 2026)
- KZ v Ma [2026] NZIACDT 31 (PDF) (checked 10 August 2026)
- INZ (Kindl) v Zhou [2026] NZIACDT 35 (PDF) (checked 10 August 2026)
- XL v Zhu [2026] NZIACDT 34 (PDF) (checked 10 August 2026)
- INZ (Watson) v Wan [2026] NZIACDT 44 (PDF) (checked 10 August 2026)
Published 10 August 2026. This is a plain-English guide for licensed advisers, not legal advice. Where it cites the Code of Conduct, the Immigration Act or the Privacy Act, read the source it links to rather than this summary of it.
