Handing over a matter looks like a transfer of documents, and documents transfer easily. What does not transfer is everything that was never written down.
Why this subclass rather than the obvious one. Why that piece of evidence was deliberately left out. What the client was warned about in March and has since forgotten. Which sponsor contact is reliable and which is not. That reasoning lives in one person's head, and a handover that moves the file without moving it produces a matter that is technically complete and practically unnavigable.
The Code adds its own requirements on top, and they differ depending on whether the handover is internal or out of the practice.
Internal handover: check the agreement first
Section 42(3)(b) of the Code of Conduct requires a service agreement to name the agent who signs it and each agent who, at signing, was expected to give immigration assistance under it.
OMARA's second guidance document sets out what follows. Where an agent not listed in accordance with that subparagraph needs to give immigration assistance to the client, an amendment to the service agreement should be made under section 44 — which requires written notice of the proposed variation and the reasons, and each client's written agreement before it takes effect.
The guidance draws a sensible boundary around this. Unless it is expected that a named agent will be unavailable, it would be unnecessary to list every agent who might be called on in an unanticipated absence — and a reference to the OMARA website listing all registered agents is expressly not sufficient. But for planned leave during a period when a client will need assistance, the agents expected to take over should be listed in the agreement.
Which produces a simple rule: plan the handover into the agreement where you can foresee it, and vary the agreement where you cannot. Our guide to staff offboarding covers this at the scale of a whole caseload.
Responsibility accrues, and does not transfer
Section 12 defines a responsible migration agent in relation to a service agreement as each agent who gives, or has given, immigration assistance under it — or, where none has yet been given, each agent who signs it.
Handover therefore adds a responsible agent rather than substituting one. The outgoing agent remains a responsible agent for the work they did, and the incoming agent becomes one from the point they give assistance.
Section 24(2) sits alongside this: the duty to ensure the quality, accuracy and timeliness of another person's work does not extend to work performed by another registered migration agent. So the incoming agent does not inherit responsibility for the outgoing agent's work, and cannot discharge their own by pointing at it. Each answers for their own conduct.
What actually needs to transfer
The file transfers itself. These are the things that do not.
Strategy and its alternatives. Not just what you are doing, but what you considered and rejected, and why. A successor who does not know that a different pathway was ruled out will either re-do the analysis or, worse, act on the assumption it was never considered.
Evidence decisions. What was deliberately not included, and the reasoning. This is the single most dangerous gap, because an absence looks identical whether it was a decision or an oversight.
What the client has been told. Particularly warnings and risks. Section 39 requires you to keep clients informed about lodgements and material developments, but the softer conversations — expectation-setting about timeframes, the caveat about a weak element — are frequently only in someone's memory.
Client dynamics. Who makes decisions in a family matter. Who the reliable contact is at a sponsor. Whether the client needs an interpreter, which section 37 requires you to arrange on request.
Deadlines and their consequences. Every date, with what happens if it is missed.
The money position. What has been invoiced, what has been paid, what is held, and what remains to be done under the agreement.
The written note is the handover
The verbal briefing is useful and insufficient. Whatever is said in the handover conversation should also be a file note, for two reasons.
Section 55 requires contemporaneous written records of oral communications with clients, so the client-facing history should already be on the file — and if the handover conversation reveals things that are not, that is a gap to fix now rather than a fact to pass along verbally.
And OMARA's practice management guidance lists maintaining records of internal discussions with staff about client applications among the supervisory arrangements a practice should have. A handover note is exactly that record.
Handover out of the practice
Where the matter leaves — a client moving to another agent, or a practice winding down — different provisions apply.
Documents. Section 54 requires the return of all documents the client is entitled to within 14 days of a written request, and the request may come from the client, a former client, or a new registered agent representing them.
The file. Section 56(6) permits transferring possession of a client file to another migration agent. Section 56(7) then puts the obligations on the receiving agent: keeping the file for seven years after the last action, and not disclosing personal information from it without the client's written consent. Section 56(8) confirms those duties are in addition to the original agent's.
Correspondence. Section 58 requires you to forward correspondence from a government official that arrives for a former client after you cease acting — and the duty only stops applying to correspondence received more than 28 days after you give the Department, or a review authority with a pending matter, written notice that you have ceased to act. Send that notice, and record the date.
Termination. Where a service agreement is being terminated rather than completed, section 57's notice requirements apply, including the client-money statement.
One rule that no longer exists is worth knowing if you are the incoming agent. The former Code prohibited taking over work from another agent without a copy of the client's written notice to that agent. OMARA's summary of the changes records that the "relations between migration agents" section was removed. The procedural gate is gone; the underlying care is not.
A handover checklist
Before
- Confirm whether the service agreement names the incoming agent, and start a section 44 variation if not.
- Bring the file up to date — file notes written, correspondence filed, deadlines recorded.
- Write the handover note: strategy, alternatives considered, evidence decisions, client dynamics, risks.
- Reconcile the money position for that matter.
At
- Walk the matter together, with both people in the file.
- Confirm every deadline and its consequence.
- Agree what the client will be told, and by whom.
After
- Tell the client in writing who is now acting, and how to reach them.
- Notify the Department or a review authority where a matter is pending.
- Confirm the incoming agent has access, and — where the outgoing agent has left — that theirs is closed.
The handover test
- Could the incoming agent explain why the current approach was chosen?
- Do they know what evidence was deliberately excluded?
- Does the agreement name them, or is a variation outstanding?
- Has the client been told in writing?
- Is the money position for this matter reconciled?
- Are all deadlines on the matter, not in the outgoing agent's calendar?
- If the outgoing agent were unreachable tomorrow, what would be lost?
That last question is the whole test. Whatever the answer is, that is what the handover note needs to contain.
Where a system helps
Handover quality is decided long beforehand, by whether the practice records reasoning or only outcomes. A file that holds documents and dates but not decisions cannot be handed over well, however careful the briefing.
What makes it work is the ordinary discipline: file notes written at the time, correspondence filed against the matter, deadlines as properties of the file rather than entries in a person's calendar, and a money position visible per matter. Do that and handover becomes reading rather than reconstruction.
LodgeHQ keeps notes, correspondence, deadlines and billing on the matter, so continuity survives a change of agent. Our guides to client onboarding and starting a migration agency cover building the habit from the beginning.
Verify before you rely on it
The provisions governing file transfer, termination and correspondence changed with the current Code, and older internal precedents will describe obligations in a form that no longer applies. Read the current text and OMARA's guidance directly.
This is general information for migration practices, not legal advice. Where a handover follows a dispute, or where a deadline sits close to the transfer, get advice on that matter specifically.