How to complain about an immigration adviser in New Zealand

Check who you are actually complaining about

The pathway depends on the person's regulator. If they hold an IAA licence — check on the licence checker — the IAA process below applies. If they are a lawyer, complaints go to the New Zealand Law Society's complaints service, not the IAA. If they are neither, and they gave New Zealand immigration advice for gain, that is potentially an offence under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007: report it to the IAA as unlicensed advice, and keep every document, invoice and message as evidence.

What you can complain about

The statutory grounds are negligence, incompetence, incapacity, dishonest or misleading behaviour, and breaches of the Licensed Immigration Advisers Code of Conduct — the code covers written agreements, fair and reasonable fees, client care, confidentiality and file handling. Since 30 March 2025 you no longer need to name a ground when you complain; describe what happened and the IAA assesses it.

Complaints can be made at any time while the adviser is licensed. If the person has stopped being an adviser, the complaint must be made within two years of when they ceased to be licensed. Anonymous complaints are not accepted, but you do not need to be the client — an employer, family member or another professional can complain.

How the process runs

You complain to the IAA in writing with supporting evidence: the written agreement, invoices, correspondence and a clear account of events. An investigator is assigned, may come back to you for clarification, and the Registrar then either closes the complaint or refers it to the Immigration Advisers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal. If the IAA closes your complaint, you can appeal that closure to the tribunal.

There is no fee at any stage, and the IAA is explicit that complaining does not affect your immigration status. Be realistic about timeframes: investigation and tribunal stages together commonly take many months.

What the tribunal can order

Where a complaint is upheld, the tribunal's sanctions include censure, required training, conditions on or suspension and cancellation of the licence, prohibition on relicensing, fines of up to $10,000, and — most relevant to clients — orders to refund fees and pay compensation for loss. A cancelled adviser can also be barred from holding a licence for up to two years.

Every tribunal decision is published. This directory carries fair-report summaries of all 816 published decisions in the decisions archive, linked from the profile of each adviser the tribunal named — and a decision is not itself a finding of wrongdoing, since some complaints are dismissed. Checking an adviser's profile and the archive before engaging is exactly the due diligence this process exists to support.