After 28 years, the Migration Agents Regulations 1998 have been replaced. The Migration Agents Regulations 2026 — and the supporting legislative instruments — commenced on 1 April 2026, part of a broader push to lift professional standards and give the regulator sharper enforcement tools.

If you’re a registered migration agent, three things in the package matter most day to day.

1. CPD gets stricter

The new CPD framework changes how you have to earn and record your points:

  • A mandatory CPD activity on the Code of Conduct for registered agents.
  • Private-study activities must be completed within 12 months of enrolment.
  • A reduction in the number of online training hours that can count in a single day.
  • An amended definition of an “interactive” workshop — it now turns on real-time discussion or interactive participation tools, not just attendance.

The practical effect: CPD is no longer something you can cram. It has to be planned, spread out, and evidenced.

2. Professional indemnity insurance is now codified

The regulations formally set out minimum professional indemnity insurance requirements rather than leaving them to guidance. Worth checking your current cover against the standard.

3. A new infringement-notice system

The regulator can now deal with certain immigration-assistance offences through civil penalties via infringement notices, rather than only full criminal prosecution — a faster path to act on misconduct.

What this means for your practice

Two of these changes reward agents who keep clean, retrievable records: CPD that has to be logged against the calendar, and a Code of Conduct that expects a demonstrable audit trail of who advised what, and when.

That’s exactly the kind of thing that falls through the cracks when your files live in email and spreadsheets. Running your caseload on a platform that logs CPD, records every change to a client file, and keeps a clear history makes a regulator request a five-minute task instead of a weekend. It’s part of why Centrio keeps the client, the application and the record together.

This is general information, not migration or legal advice. Details and dates were accurate at publication and can change — always confirm against the primary source before relying on them.

Sources: