When it goes wrong with your migration agent: every option you have

You have more routes than you think, and they run in parallel. Using one does not close the others.

First: write it down#

Before anything else, produce a timeline. Dates, amounts, what was promised, what was delivered, what was said and by whom. Attach the agreement, the invoices, the receipts and the messages.

Every route below asks for this, and the version you write while you are still angry is usually better evidence than the one you write six months later, because it is closer to the facts.

Then put your complaint to the agent in writing and keep a copy. Two reasons: they may fix it, and every regulator will ask whether you raised it first.

Route 1: the agent's own complaints process#

The Code of Conduct requires a registered agent to have one, to respond to a complaint properly, and to co-operate with the Authority.

"Properly" is doing work in that sentence. A one-line dismissal is not a response. Silence is certainly not.

If you get nothing back, that failure is itself a matter you can take to the regulator - separately from whatever the original complaint was about.

Route 2: the regulator#

For a registered migration agent: OMARA.

The Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority takes complaints about registered agents and about people falsely claiming to be agents. It can caution, suspend, bar, and cancel registration.

Complaints it acts on readily include: money taken before a signed agreement (s51), documents not returned within 14 days (s54), no written agreement (s42), fees not disclosed properly (s46), no invoices or receipts (s49), client money not held in a client account (s50), guaranteed outcomes or implied government connections (s26), and failure to keep you informed (s45).

For an immigration lawyer: the state legal services commissioner.

Lawyers came off the OMARA register on 22 March 2021 and are regulated by their state or territory legal services commissioner - the Legal Services Board and Commissioner in Victoria, the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner in NSW, the Legal Services Commission in Queensland, and equivalents elsewhere. They handle both conduct complaints and costs disputes, and they can order costs to be reduced or refunded.

Route 3: the Australian Consumer Law#

Services supplied to a consumer come with statutory guarantees: due care and skill, fitness for purpose, and supply within a reasonable time. These are in the Australian Consumer Law and, under section 64, they cannot be excluded by any contract. Not by an agent's terms, not by ours, not by anyone's.

If a service was not supplied with due care and skill, you have a remedy independent of any regulator. For a major failure that can mean a refund.

Since 9 November 2023, including an unfair term in a standard-form consumer contract is not merely unenforceable - it is illegal, with penalties reaching the greater of $50 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 30% of adjusted turnover. So a clause saying "no refunds under any circumstances" is worse than useless to the business that wrote it.

Start with your state or territory fair trading office. Conciliation is free and it moves faster than most people expect.

Route 4: your card issuer#

If you paid by credit or debit card, a chargeback is often the fastest realistic route to actual money. Services not rendered, or not rendered as described, is a recognised ground.

Chargebacks have time limits - commonly 120 days from the transaction or from when the service was due, though it varies. This is the reason not to spend six months exhausting other routes first.

Route 5: a small claims tribunal#

Each state has one - VCAT, NCAT, QCAT and so on. Filing fees are modest, lawyers are often not required, and they can order money to be paid. Worth it for amounts in the low thousands where the agent will not engage.

Route 6: fix the migration problem#

Separate from all of the above, and usually more urgent.

If something has gone wrong with the application - a missed deadline, a wrong form, evidence not lodged, a request for information ignored - get a different registered agent or lawyer to look at it now. Most damage is fixable early and much harder once a decision has been made.

If a deadline has been missed, the options narrow by the day. This is the part to move on first, even while a complaint is unresolved.

The specific problems, and what to do#

They have stopped responding#

Write, giving a deadline. Then complain to the regulator citing section 45 - the duty to keep you informed. Simultaneously, request your documents in writing under section 54, which starts a 14-day clock.

They took money before anything was signed#

That is section 51 and it is one of the clearest breaches in the Code. Ask for the money back in writing, then complain. It is also good evidence for a chargeback, because there was no agreement for the service to be rendered under.

They will not return my documents#

Section 54: 14 days from your written request. Send the request, reference the section, keep the proof of sending. Regulators act on this one.

They missed a deadline#

Deal with the migration consequence first - a new agent, today. Then a complaint under the duty to act competently and diligently, and a money claim under the consumer guarantee of due care and skill. A missed statutory deadline is about as clear a failure of due care as this area produces.

The fee turned out to be much more than quoted#

If the fee was fixed, it was fixed, and a variation needed your agreement. If it was hourly, section 46 required an estimate of hours and you should have been told before it was exceeded. For a lawyer, a costs dispute goes to the legal services commissioner, which is a well-worn path.

They guaranteed me a visa and I was refused#

The guarantee itself breaches section 26. That does not automatically get your money back, but it is a serious conduct complaint and it is relevant to whether the service was supplied with due care and skill.

They were never registered#

Different situation, and a more serious one - see the guide on unregistered operators. Report it to the Department and to OMARA, chase the money through your card and fair trading, and get someone real to check what was actually lodged.

What VisaBid does#

If the engagement was arranged here, raise a dispute on the engagement. The platform records the agent's response, puts them on a clock, keeps the whole record - the agreement, every invoice, every message, every timestamp - and can refund from the agent's account where the payment ran through it.

What it does not do is replace any of the routes above. Nothing in our terms limits your rights under the Australian Consumer Law, your right to complain to OMARA or a legal services commissioner, or your right to go to a tribunal. It could not lawfully do so, and it would be a strange thing for a site built on this argument to try.

Questions people ask#

How long do I have to complain?#

There is no single deadline, but the practical ones bite early: chargebacks are commonly limited to around 120 days, tribunal claims have limitation periods measured in years, and evidence gets worse every month. Start now, in parallel, rather than in sequence.

Will complaining hurt my visa application?#

No. A complaint about an agent goes to OMARA or a legal regulator. The Department decides your visa on its merits. They are separate processes and one does not feed the other.

Can I change agents mid-application?#

Yes, at any time. A new Form 956 is lodged appointing the new representative and the previous appointment ends. You are entitled to your file back within 14 days, and to a statement of what was done and charged. You may still owe for work genuinely performed - what you should not be paying for is work that was not done.

The agent says the contract has a no-refund clause.#

A contract cannot exclude the consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law - section 64 says so directly. And since November 2023, including an unfair term in a standard-form consumer contract is itself illegal. A blanket no-refund clause is not the end of the conversation; in some cases it is the start of a better one.

Should I get a lawyer to complain for me?#

Usually not at first. Regulator complaints and fair trading conciliation are designed to be used without one and are free. If real money is at stake and the agent will not engage, that is the point to get advice.