A Dunedin immigration law specialist is urging care with immigration applications.
Migrants, who were often vulnerable or did not speak good English, needed to ensure they were not caught out by legislation that came into force earlier this month, requiring all applications to be handled by licensed advisers, Sally McMillan, a partner with Anderson Lloyd Lawyers, said.
Migrants who had already begun the application process might not realise many of those acting as advisers in the past had chosen not to become licensed.
"My advice is to get some advice," she said.
Anyone wishing to be recognised as an immigration agent had until Monday to become registered.
By Wednesday, only 184 agents had been licensed throughout New Zealand, including three in Otago, Immigration Advisers Authority spokesman Mark Fenwick said.
It was not known how many people had been operating as agents before Monday, but the authority had estimated about 400 people might go through the licensing process, he said.
The Immigration Service processes about 526,000 immigration applications annually.
They range from people wanting student visas to those wishing to live or work in New Zealand permanently.
Ms McMillan said the new Act was brought in to regulate "marginal front-room operators" by outlining who could give advice, the standard that advice should reach, and how to complain if advice was substandard.
Putting immigration applications together was often a lengthy process, she said, and some migrants who were part-way through the process with an unlicensed agent might discover they had to begin afresh with someone else, or attempt to fill in their applications themselves.
"If an application is mid-stream, it is hard to see how some people won't be affected."
Migrants could still lodge their own applications with the Immigration Service, either in person or through the service's website.
However, visa applications could be "exhausting" while the website was "fantastically detailed but complex", she said.
Two major southern employers who attract staff from overseas said they would not be affected by the licensing requirement.
Kevin Seales, human resources manager for the University of Otago, and Karyn Penno, regional general manager of human resource services for the Otago and Southland District Health Boards, both said their organisations did not employ immigration agents or give specific immigration advice to potential employees.
They both directed potential employees directly to the Immigration Service.
Immigration Advisers Licensing Act, 2007
> Required advisers be licensed by May 4, 2009.
> Lawyers exempt from Act and can provide immigration advice and lodge applications without being licensed.
> MPs, public servants, community law centre and Citizens Advice Bureau employees and volunteers, family members and friends can still provide informal advice, providing they do not charge a fee.
> Since May 4, New Zealand Immigration Service no longer processes applications prepared by unlicensed agents.
> Applications prepared by unlicensed agents and lodged before May 4 still processed.
> Register of licensed agents available on the Immigration Advisers Authority website.
