The government has proposed in the Senate that the commencement date of the Migration Amendment (Regulation of Migration Agents) Bill 2018 be amended from 19 November 2018 to 30 June 2019.
All the other dates contained in the Bill, such as the date by which RMA can request a time extension to transition from restricted to unrestricted practising certificates, were shifted as a result, as follows:
- 19 August 2020 to 30 March 2021
- 19 November 2020 to 30 June 2021
- 19 November 2022 to 30 June 2023
The Bill has not yet been passed in the Senate, but given that both Houses of Parliament are sitting from Monday to Thursday, it is quite possible for the Bill to be amended by the House of Representatives and voted by the Senate within the next week.
If the Bill is enacted as per the above proposed changes, holders of unrestricted legal practising certificates would continue to be RMAs until 29 June 2019 and from 30 June 2019 onwards will be only legal practitioners, without the possibility of retaining their MARN. RMAs who hold restricted legal practising certificates would have a 2-year transition period starting from 30 June 2019 to 30 June 2021, extendable by MARA on a case-by-case basis upon application until 30 June 2023.
Read our previous article on the matter published earlier on 14 September 2018.
The writer thanks a good friend who does not want to be named for bringing the above to his attention.
Disclaimer: the above is a mere tentative analysis of what could happen to a Bill. The law or policies might have changed between the writing and reading of this article. The author of this article and Migration Law Updates disclaim any liability for any action (or omission) on their part based on any information provided (or not provided) in this article and are under no obligation to keep the general public nor practitioners informed about the matters discussed in this article or any other matters, or any future changes to any of those matters. It is the responsibility of each practitioner to obtain access to primary sources of law and policy by themselves and to carry out their own research and come to their own conclusions on legislation, case law, policies and more. This article is not intended for the general public.
Sergio Zanotti Stagliorio is a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1461003). He is the owner of Target Migration in Sydney. He can be reached at sergio@targetmigration.com.au