Immigration Advice and Lawyers

Practising lawyers

A lawyer is a person who holds a current practising certificate as a barrister or as a barrister and solicitor, issued by the New Zealand Law Society.

Usually anyone giving immigration advice must hold a licence. However, lawyers fall into an exempt category of people who do not need to hold a licence. The exempt category includes, among others, lawyers and the employees of lawyers or law firms providing immigration advice as part of their job. Employees of lawyers do not need to hold a licence on the basis that they cannot give advice on their own and it is the lawyer employer who is responsible for giving immigration advice.