A client stops responding. A relationship becomes unworkable. A sponsor withdraws and the applicant cannot fund the rest. However it happens, the practice sends a letter saying the engagement has ended and moves on.
Under the current Code of Conduct, the letter is usually late by the time it goes out. Section 57 requires the notice to reach the client before any termination of the agreement takes effect — not to record that it has.
This article is about termination specifically. Where a matter simply finishes, the Code treats that as completion rather than termination, and a different set of obligations applies; our file closure checklist covers that path.
The notice comes first
Section 57(1) makes a responsible migration agent ensure that each client covered by the agreement is given a written notice before any termination takes effect. Not the primary applicant. Each client.
That ordering has a practical consequence. You cannot terminate on Monday and paper it on Friday. Where you are ending an engagement, the notice is the mechanism by which it ends, so the decision has to be made far enough ahead for the notice to precede it.
The two exceptions, and their tail
Section 57(2) provides for the situations where advance notice is impossible:
- where exceptional circumstances make it reasonable to terminate without the client having been given notice first, or
- where the agreement is terminated unilaterally by a client.
In both cases the obligation does not disappear — it moves. You must ensure each client covered is given a compliant written notice no later than 14 days after the termination takes effect.
The second exception is the one that catches practices out. When a client sacks you, you still owe them a formal notice within 14 days, containing everything section 57(3) requires. It feels counter-intuitive to send a termination notice to someone who terminated you, which is precisely why it does not get sent.
What the notice must contain
Section 57(3) prescribes the content, and section 57(4) and (5) add more where circumstances apply:
- the date from which the agreement is terminated
- where an immigration matter is pending: the status of that matter; and either the name and contact details of the registered agent it is being allocated to, together with a statement that the client may choose not to have it allocated and may stop using your services at any time before termination — or, if it is not being allocated, details of how the client may obtain further immigration assistance
- where you or anyone in your business holds client money: a statement setting out each amount of client money received, each amount paid out under section 50(1)(d), and the amount remaining — plus a statement that in the absence of instructions the remaining amount will be refunded
- a statement setting out the effect of section 54, which is the client's right to have their documents returned
The client-money statement is a reconciliation, not a balance. Received, paid out, remaining — for that client, on demand, at the least convenient moment. Our practical guide to trust accounting covers keeping the account in a state where that is a lookup rather than an investigation.
The Department notice is separate, and it starts a clock
Section 57(6) is a second obligation, easy to read past because it sits under the same heading.
Where an immigration matter is pending before the Department or a review authority at the time termination takes effect, you must ensure they are given written notice no later than 14 days after that.
This notice does more than tidy the record. Section 58 requires you to forward correspondence from a government official that arrives for a former client after you have ceased acting — and that duty only stops applying to correspondence received more than 28 days after you give the Department written notice that you have ceased to act.
So the 28-day tail does not begin when the relationship ends. It begins when you tell the Department. Skip that notice and you retain an open-ended obligation to forward mail on a matter you no longer hold.
Section 58(3) adds a route by which the notice is taken to have been given: where the client had authorised you as their recipient of documents under section 494D(1) of the Migration Act and then varies or withdraws that authorisation, notice is taken to have been given at the later of that change and the day the client ceased to be your client.
Money and documents on the way out
Refunds. Section 52 requires refunds payable under the agreement to be paid in accordance with it, promptly, and in any case no later than 14 days after they become payable. A terminated matter with an unspent balance has a live 14-day obligation whether or not the client has asked.
Documents. Section 54 requires the return of all documents to which the client is entitled within 14 days of a written request, and the request may come from the client, a former client, or a new registered migration agent representing them. Documents the client is entitled to include anything given to you by or on behalf of them, and anything paid for by or on behalf of them.
Liens. Section 54(2) allows one only where the agent is a restricted legal practitioner who is eligible — and a person cannot be registered as a migration agent at all if they are an unrestricted legal practitioner, or a restricted one who is not eligible. For the overwhelming majority of RMAs, withholding documents over an unpaid invoice is simply not available.
Confidentiality. Section 35 extends to former clients, so nothing about ending the relationship loosens what you may disclose about it.
Taking over from another agent
If you are on the receiving side, one rule you may remember no longer exists.
The former Code prohibited taking over work from another registered migration agent unless you received from the client a copy of their written notice to that agent saying their services were no longer needed. OMARA's summary of the changes records that the whole "relations between migration agents" section was removed from the current Code.
That removes a procedural gate, not a reason for care. Sections 36 and 42 still require you to verify identity and put a compliant agreement in place, section 34 still requires the conflict analysis, and knowing whether the previous engagement has actually ended remains the first question worth answering — not least because section 57's obligations sit with the outgoing agent, and a client who believes they have moved on may not have told them.
Where a file is transferred rather than rebuilt, section 56(7) puts the retention and confidentiality duties on the receiving agent: seven years from the last action on the file, and no disclosure of the client's personal information without written consent.
The offboarding sequence
- Decide the effective date far enough ahead that the notice can precede it.
- Draft the notice against section 57(3) to (5) as a checklist, including the client-money reconciliation and the statement about document return.
- Send it to every client covered by the agreement, not only your usual contact.
- Notify the Department or review authority within 14 days where a matter is pending, and record the date — it starts the 28-day correspondence limit.
- Refund any balance within 14 days of it becoming payable.
- Return documents within 14 days of a written request, and record the return on the file.
- Route incoming correspondence for that client somewhere a person will see it for at least 28 days after the notice.
The termination test
For your last two terminated matters:
- Did the notice go out before the termination took effect, or after?
- Did it reach every client covered by the agreement?
- Did it include the received / paid out / remaining client-money statement?
- Is there a Department notice with a date on the file?
- Did anything arrive for that client afterwards, and where did it go?
- Is the residual balance refunded, or still sitting there?
Where a system helps
Termination is the worst possible moment to be assembling information. The relationship is already strained, the clocks are short, and the notice requires a per-client money reconciliation on demand.
What helps is having the answer standing: client money reconciled per client rather than per matter, a notice generated from the file so no required element is left out, the Department notice recorded as a dated event, and mail for a closed matter still landing on the matter.
LodgeHQ keeps parties, money and correspondence on the same file so an exit is a sequence rather than a search. Our Code compliance checklist covers the surrounding obligations.
Verify before you rely on it
Termination provisions are among those the current Code rewrote most heavily, and any internal precedent citing Part 10 or a seven-day post-notice list is describing a repealed rule. Read the current text: the prescribed Code, the Regulations on the Federal Register, and OMARA's practice management duties guidance.
This is general information for migration practices, not legal advice. Where a termination is contested, or a deadline is at risk, get advice on that matter before you act.