[Scotty69]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10570168

Hope no one is in in too deep.....

[Cat Woman]

Simple!
Don't use a consultant - do it yourself and save thousands - we did.

[Chiba]

The Act was passed 2 years ago. It's not like it should be coming as a surprise to anyone.

[Ramo]

The Act was passed 2 years ago. It's not like it should be coming as a surprise to anyone.

Guess it's harder to know about if you're not already in the country or working at an immigration advisory/agency. If anything shouldn't the immigration service that you've been using told you ahead of time 'before' you handed your cash over? Either way, looks like the consumer has got a pretty raw deal over the timing of the act, though the law itself seems to make sense.

[Chiba]

If you go to Google New Zealand and type in immigration adviser, the IAA is the first and second hits, and the third and fourth are links to the NZIS website telling you about the IAA too. If you were going to hand over $9k to a builder then you'd probably be looking for one who had some kind of badge telling you s/he had qualifications or accreditation, no? You'd certainly shop around for a few quotes, and you'd have to be pretty unlucky to not come across at least one who did have the relevant badge(s). Remember, the license has only just become mandatory for onshore advisers, so it's not all that unreasonable to expect people to pick up on it in two years. Printing it on the application forms, advertising, newspaper stories, word of mouth, etc. Not sure what else you'd expect to be done.