March 2016 newsletter
Registrar update
Thank you to all those who volunteered for the 2016 Licensed Immigration Adviser’s Reference Group. I am looking forward to our first meeting on 2 March.
This month I will be travelling to India to meet with our licensed advisers there, as well as Immigration New Zealand and Education New Zealand. The purpose of the visit is to help me better understand the challenges in India and also to conduct a media campaign to increase awareness of the importance of using licensed advisers.
I am also delighted that this month we will have a very strong presence at both Pasifika and Polyfest, the two largest annual events for Auckland’s Pacific communities. Again our purpose is to increase awareness about the importance of using licensed advisers.
We are continuing to work on improving our online services and our website’s performance. I welcome your feedback and suggestions for improvements so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Thank you to all of those who joined our webinar last week for TTMRA advisers on our Code of Conduct. Our next webinar will be on the Authority’s CPD requirements.
Catherine Albiston
Registrar of Immigration Advisers
The 2016 Reference Group
This year’s Licensed Adviser Reference Group is made up of the following advisers:
- June Ranson (NZAMI, Wellington)
- Jennifer De Wald-Harrison (NZAIP, Wellington)
- Munish Sekhri (India)
- Stephan DuPlessis (Hamilton)
- Penny Pan (Auckland)
- Jianqiang Luo (Auckland)
- Vadana Rai (Auckland)
- Asoka Weerasundara (Wellington)
- Arathi Tekkam (Sydney)
- Nils Macfarlane / Appley Boyd (Christchurch)
An INZ representative will also attend the meetings.
Reference group members may raise any issues they wish to discuss in this forum.
Webinar on the Authority’s new CPD requirements
In April, we will run a webinar on the Authority’s new CPD requirements:
Continuing Professional Development Requirements
Thursday 14 April 2016 9am – 10.30am 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.
This webinar will be repeated later in the year at a different time of day for advisers who are in a different time zone.
Please register for this webinar here
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Future webinars will be run on:
- The new CPD requirements
- Supervision.
Have you read our CPD Toolkit?
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.
Code of Conduct Toolkit updated
The Authority’s Code of Conduct Toolkit has been updated.
The Toolkit now has a new range of relevant Tribunal decisions under each section of the Code.
We have also updated the information on:
- charging for information requested and
- the importance of keeping records.
Are you recently licensed through the TTMRA?
If you are licensed as a New Zealand immigration adviser through the TTMRA, please remember that you are required to understand and adhere to all aspects of the New Zealand Licensed Immigration Advisers Code of Conduct. This includes, for example, maintaining full client files and providing all clients with our Professional Standards leaflet.
Read the Code of Conduct Toolkit
Did you know...?
It is a reality that all professionals make mistakes, that they will be unfairly accused of making mistakes and that they will have to deal with clients who have been disappointed. Professionals deal with aspects of people’s lives that are both important to them and often emotionally sensitive.
Having an internal complaints procedure is an opportunity to deal effectively with issues that have ‘gone wrong’. If a client comes to an adviser with a complaint, and the adviser addresses their concerns effectively, the adviser may retain a healthy professional relationship with that client.
Read more on the role and value of the internal complaints procedure
New Tribunal decisions
The Tribunal website has recently been updated with its most recent decisions.
Reading Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal decisions will help develop your understanding of the standards expected of licensed immigration advisers.
