When you appoint a registered migration agent to act on your behalf, they will normally be our first point of contact for your visa application.

This means that if we want to discuss your visa application, we will generally contact your registered migration agent first rather than you.

Depending on your contract of services with your registered migration agent, a visa processing officer may engage with your agent by:

• discussing your visa application
• sending written communication about your application to your agent (if your agent is also your authorised recipient) and
• seeking information relevant to your application.

Our communication to your registered migration agent may include the following:

• an acknowledgement of receipt of your application
• a formal request for more information in support of your application
• a request for an interview
• information about any associated bridging visas and work rights while you wait for a decision on your application
• a notice of a decision to either grant, refuse or cancel your visa application.

Depending on your contract, your registered migration agent could prepare documents for your visa application such as your visa application form, and other departmental forms and evidence collected from you to support your application. Any document they submit to us is regarded as having been sent on your behalf. Registered migration agents must not make statements in support of an application or encourage the making of statements, which they know or believe to be misleading or inaccurate.

If you have appointed your registered migration agent as your authorised recipient, all written communications in relation to your matter, for example visa application or cancellation of a visa, will be sent to them. Most of the time, you will not receive a separate copy of the documents. You are taken to have received any documents sent to your authorised recipient as if they had been sent to you. However, you can request us to provide you with copies.

Once you receive an outcome for your visa application, communication between us and your registered migration agent comes to an end. This means that if you want to apply for review of a visa decision or apply for another visa, you will need to re-appoint a registered migration agent by filling out Form 956 Advice by migration agent/exempt person of providing immigration assistance to send to us. You do not need to do this for any associated bridging visa applications.