Quality Check Exempt Advisers Group

1. Quality CheckExempt Advisers Group April 2012

2. Background • Retrospective quality checks to be undertaken to determine if the immigration adviser licence exemptions are being claimed correctly. • Review completed for 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2011.

3. Methodology:Lawyers • To meet the exemption a lawyer must hold a current practising certificate issued by the New Zealand Law Society (NZLS). • Due to the large dataset (395), a random sample of 50% (199) of the lawyers was checked against the NZLS register. • Applications submitted by the advisers were queried with the case officers

4. Methodology:Offshore Student • Very large dataset (4264) • Added complexity of how to verify the exemption as the advice must be given offshore. • Full verification would entail having every individual advisers personal details and track their movements as well as confirming when the advice was given.

5. Offshore Student cont. • The following was undertaken: Company location – Verification of company names and assumed location. Randomly, (approx 10%) a company’s details were checked in AMS. • Application categories – Analysis of the INZ visa categories that the exemption was recorded against.

6. Methodology:Other exempt categories • Informal/Family, NZ Member of Parliament, NZ Public Service, Citizens Advice Bureau, Community Law Centre and Foreign Diplomat/Consular. • Due to the small size of the dataset for these categories: • all advisers were checked; and • 100% of the applications submitted by the advisers were checked

7. Lawyers:Findings • Total lawyers recorded = 395 • Random sample of 199 lawyers was analysed • Of the 199 lawyers, 29 could not be found on the NZLS register. These were queried with case officers and 19 replies were received: • Four were correct (names were recorded differently- variation of spelling/married name) • Five were employees of a lawyer where the lawyer had submitted the application • Five were data entry errors as no exemption was claimed on the form • Four were Licensed Advisers • One was incorrect – the lawyer was on the NZLS register but is an in-house lawyer (this is to be passed onto the IAA)

8. Offshore Student:Findings • Application categories: • Total 4264 applications were recorded under the Offshore Student exemption • 42 (.98%) applications were non student visa applications and had the exemption incorrectly recorded against them • These resulted from INZ error • Company location: • A check of randomly selected applications found all companies to be located offshore.

9. Informal/Family:Findings • There were 16 applications within the dataset. All were queried with the case officers and 14 replies were received: • Two did not provide clarification as to how they met the exemption • Five were INZ data entry errors in that the wrong exemption was recorded • Two could not be verified as the applications were paperless • Five could not be verified as they were online Working Holiday applications

10. Overall • Exemptions are being claimed correctly. • Recurring issue: • INZ data entry error • Emerging issue: • Exemptions are being incorrectly claimed in online applications

11. Recommendations • Provide a reminder to branches including: • The recurring data entry error • For the lawyer exemption – the ‘responsible’ lawyer must be contact recorded as the adviser and not an employee • Investigate whether further information can be added to the website on the WHS page in regards to exemptions • Change the current verification parameters from 6months to 12 months.