What a licensed immigration adviser’s website has to show: the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada

The short version

The United Kingdom: the Immigration Advice Authority

The Immigration Advice Authority (IAA), called the OISC until January 2025, regulates immigration advisers who are not lawyers. Its Code of Standards 2024 came into force on 1 September 2024.

What the rules say

• Code 6.1: display your IAA registration number where appropriate. The guidance notes say the IAA expects it on your letterhead, website and email, and that the digital badge can go on your website.
• The IAA’s practice note on promotional material (updated 21 May 2025), paragraph 10: a website must prominently display the IAA’s regulatory details and your unique number, and should include the IAA logo and digital badge.
• Paragraph 11: if you advise online, a phone number or an email address the client can use to reach you directly. Paragraph 12: a privacy policy statement.
• Paragraph 8: any page in another language needs an identical English version that is easy to find. Paragraph 9: a company should give its registered details, including when it trades under another name.
• Paragraph 7: testimonials only as the client volunteered them, with their knowledge, and accurate. The IAA may ask to see the records behind them.
• Codes 6.4 and 6.5: no criticism of other organisations or advisers in promotional material, and no promotional statements about your success rates.
• The guidance to Code 8.1: advertising must explain the services offered, and the authorised levels and categories of the people who provide them, accurately. If you advise online, say what you are authorised to provide, how long it usually takes and what it costs.

How a site shows it

• Your number, level and categories in the first screen and the footer of every page, with the badge linked to the IAA’s adviser finder (opens in a new tab).
• A page for each service you are authorised for, with its cost and a realistic timeframe.
• Testimonials only with the client’s permission, and the record kept.
• Every page in another language with its English twin one tap away.

New Zealand: the Immigration Advisers Authority

What the rules say

• Only a licensed adviser, or someone exempt, may give immigration advice about New Zealand (Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007, section 63). Holding yourself out as an adviser, or as licensed, when you are not is an offence too (sections 64 and 65).
• The Licensed Immigration Advisers Code of Conduct 2014, still the code in force, clause 29: an adviser must not misrepresent, or promote in a false, fraudulent or deceptive way, themselves (including their licence status or type), their business, their employees, the client, immigration opportunities or risks, or New Zealand’s immigration requirements.
• The Authority’s own example of a breach: advertising that a visa is 100% guaranteed, because the adviser is not the one who decides.

I could not find a clause that requires the licence number on a website. Showing it is still the quickest way to prove the one thing clause 29 protects: your licence status.

How a site shows it: a site I built

On the site I built for a licensed adviser in Tauranga, her licence number sits beside her name near the top of the home page, one tap from the public register (opens in a new tab), and again at the foot of all twelve pages. Every page ends by saying that Immigration New Zealand makes the final decision and that no outcome is guaranteed. How it was built, and why.

Australia: the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority

What the rules say

• The Migration (Migration Agents Code of Conduct) Regulations 2021, section 25(1): an agent’s MARN (Migration Agents Registration Number) must appear on their correspondence and business cards.
• Section 25(2): an agent must take all reasonable steps to make sure the MARN of at least one registered agent in the business appears on the business’s website, on its social media, and in any advertisement for its immigration assistance.
• Section 25(3) and (4): a MARN must not be used to suggest that someone else’s work is the agent’s, and misuse must be reported to the Authority within 14 days.
• Section 26: no false or misleading statement about the agent’s qualifications, immigration opportunities or risks, or migration procedure; no claim of a special relationship with a government official; and never a claim that the agent can procure a particular decision. The agent must take reasonable steps to stop anyone in the business, or any advertisement, saying so.

These sections read the same in the compilation of 1 April 2026, which followed the Migration Agents Regulations 2026.

How a site shows it

• The MARN in the first screen and the footer of every page, linked to the register of migration agents (opens in a new tab).
• Where several agents work in the business, each one’s MARN beside their own name, so no number seems to vouch for someone else’s work.
• The same MARN in each social profile’s bio, and in every advertisement.

Canada: the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants

What the rules say

• The Code of Professional Conduct for College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants Licensees (SOR/2022-128), section 44(1): a licensee who markets their services must make sure their name, as registered with the College, is prominently displayed or announced at or near the beginning of any advertisement, in the language of the advertisement; that any written advertisement includes the internet address of the College’s online public register; and that the marketing is in the public’s best interests.
• Section 44(2): no false, misleading or inaccurate representations; no guarantee that an application will succeed; and nothing that implies a relationship with the Government of Canada or a provincial government.
• Section 45: a client’s or former client’s endorsement only with their written consent, and only if it is true and accurate. Section 46: the College’s name, logo or marks only as the College permits.

How a site shows it

• Your registered name and licence number at the top of every page, with the address of the College’s public register (opens in a new tab) written out beside them.
• The same in every language you advertise in, on the site and off it: Punjabi, Hindi, Tagalog or French.
• Testimonials only with written consent on file, and quoted word for word.

A checklist that covers all four

1. Your number where a stranger lands, on a phone, without scrolling.
2. The register one tap away, and its address written out where your regulator asks for it.
3. No success rate, no guarantee, and nothing that says you can get someone a visa.
4. Testimonials only with written consent, word for word.
5. A way to reach you directly: phone, WhatsApp or email.
6. A privacy notice.
7. The same in every language you publish in.

If your site already does all seven, it is doing its job. If it doesn’t, the five checks on the advisers page are a quicker place to start, and the page itself shows the site I would build.