A common way to cut costs in a migration practice is to send the admin offshore. Form filling, data entry, document chasing, copying a passport number into a fifth place. A skilled assistant in another country costs a fraction of an Australian wage, and for many agencies it works.

This post is not an argument against it. It is a way to price it properly, because the hourly rate is only one line, and then to compare it with the other way of removing the typing: software that does the re-keying and checks the result. We build Centrio, so weigh that. The accounting below works whichever way you decide.

What the monotonous part of the job actually is

Ask a registered agent where an application’s hours go and the answer is rarely the advice. It is the same client details entered into the CRM, then the questionnaire, then the ImmiAccount form, then the cover letter, then the invoice. Then the document checklist, then the follow-up, then the same again for the partner and each child.

We could not find a published survey of how many hours migration agents spend on this, and we are not going to invent one. The only way to know is to time it. For one month, log the minutes spent on re-keying and checking per matter. Everything below works from your number, not ours.

The offshore rate, and what sits on top of it

Vendor guides for Filipino virtual assistants in 2026 quote about US$4 to US$8 an hour for a direct hire and about US$8 to US$15 an hour through a managed agency, with specialised roles higher. These guides are written by staffing companies, so treat them as directional and check current rates yourself. Those are US dollars, before you convert.

Now add what the rate does not include:

  • Briefing and review. Someone with a MARA registration has to check what comes back before it goes near a lodgement. Every hour of review is an hour of your own time, at your own rate.
  • Rework. A wrong subclass-specific answer, a transposed date or a missed question costs more to find and fix than to enter correctly the first time.
  • Handover. When an assistant leaves, the knowledge of how your practice does things leaves too.
  • Time zones. Questions asked at 4pm get answered the next morning.
  • Your Privacy Act duties. This one is easy to skip, so it gets its own section.

A worked example, with every assumption in plain view so you can replace it: say an agency lodges 20 applications a month, and each needs four hours of re-keying and checking. That is 80 hours a month. At the managed-agency range of US$8 to US$15, the typing costs US$640 to US$1,200 a month. If the registered agent then spends 15 minutes reviewing each hour of output, that adds 20 hours of agent time, which at A$150 an hour is A$3,000 a month. The offshore invoice is the smaller number. Your numbers will differ, but the review line is the one most agencies leave out.

Where the compliance exposure sits

Two things do not move offshore with the work.

The Code of Conduct stays with you. The Migration (Migration Agents Code of Conduct) Regulations 2021 apply to the registered agent, and you must comply with them to stay on the register. Whoever typed the answers, you are the one who lodged them. The OMARA sanctions we looked at were mostly admin failures: missing agreements, missed deadlines, poor file notes. Delegating the admin does not delegate the accountability.

Client data crossing a border has rules. Under Australian Privacy Principle 8 and section 16C of the Privacy Act, an Australian business that discloses personal information to an overseas recipient must take reasonable steps to make sure it is handled in line with the Australian Privacy Principles, and can stay accountable for what the recipient does with it. The OAIC generally expects an enforceable contract with the overseas recipient. Whether the Act applies to your business depends on its size and activities, so confirm that first. If it does, a migration file is about as sensitive as personal information gets: passports, health checks, police certificates, family details.

So the real offshore cost includes a written contract, a way to control access, and a plan for what happens to the data when the engagement ends.

The other way to remove the typing

The alternative is to stop typing the same thing five times. If the client’s details live in one record, every form, letter and invoice can read from it.

This is what Centrio does, and it is deliberately narrow:

  • It fills, you lodge. The extension runs inside your own ImmiAccount session in your own browser and fills the questions from the client record. It never submits an application.
  • No one else logs in. There is no assistant holding your credentials, and the extension does not store or replay government logins.
  • It shows its working. Each answer is listed in a side panel with where it came from, and answers that were inferred rather than read from the record are marked for you to check. You are reviewing flagged items, not reading every field.
  • It prompts you. A matter shows what is missing: the unsigned agreement, the document not yet received, the date coming up. Nothing waits in somebody’s inbox.
  • Your clients’ data is hosted in Australia. For even more control, connect your own storage for client documents. Our privacy policy explains how it is handled.

What it does not do is exercise judgment. Which visa, which stream, whether the evidence is strong enough: those stay with the registered agent, as they should whoever does the typing.

How to decide

  1. Time one month of re-keying and checking, per matter.
  2. Price the offshore option with the review, rework and contract lines included, not just the hourly rate.
  3. Price the software option the same way. Centrio’s Solo plan is free for one agent and up to 10 clients, and Practice is A$99 a month flat with unlimited users, so you can test it on real matters first.
  4. Run both on the same ten matters and compare the time you spent reviewing.

Many agencies end up with both: software for the repetitive entry, a person for the work that needs reading. If you are weighing products, our ten checks for migration agent software and the nine-product comparison are the places to start. For the wider cost picture, see where agencies lose money.

This is general information, not legal, privacy or migration advice. Offshore rates are from vendor guides and are indicative only. The worked example uses assumed hours and rates, not survey data. Check your own obligations with the OAIC, OMARA or a privacy adviser.

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