Hari Pokharel: registration cancelled by OMARA on 13 Mar 2025

What the Authority decided

On 13 March 2025, the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (the Authority) decided to cancel the registration of Registered Migration Agent (RMA) Mr Hari Pokharel (MARN: 1571651) following an investigation into four complaints regarding the Agent’s conduct.

The Authority found that the RMA breached his obligations under clauses 2.1, 2.4, 2.7(c), 2.8, 2.9, 2.9A, 2.15, 2.23, 3.1, 3.2, 5.2, 5.3 and 7.2 of the former Code of Conduct for Registered Migration Agents (the former Code) as in force prior to 1 March 2022.

The Authority found that the RMA:

• Was involved in an arrangement where payment was exchanged for a sponsorship related event and in doing so failed to act in accordance with the law (being section 245AR of the Act).
• Failed to act in the legitimate interests of clients and to deal with clients competently, diligently and fairly.
• Failed to have due regard to a client’s dependence on the RMA’s knowledge and experience.
• Held out unsubstantiated or unjustified prospects of success when advising clients in relation to a merits review application.
• Failed to keep clients fully informed in writing on the progress of their application.
• Made statements in support of applications, or encouraged the making of statements, which he knew or believed to be misleading or inaccurate.
• Attempted to mislead or deceive the Authority.
• Exerted undue pressure on clients.
• Failed to take all reasonable steps to maintain the reputation and integrity of the migration advice profession.
• Failed to comply with his confidentiality obligations.
• Failed to give clients written confirmation (in an Agreement for Services and Fees) of the services to be performed.
• Carried out work in a manner that unnecessarily increased the cost to a client.
• Failed to comply with client monies handling obligations.

The Authority was also satisfied that the RMA was not a person of integrity, or otherwise was not a fit and proper person to give immigration assistance.

The decision summary above is reproduced from the Authority's published record of this decision, which also carries the decision document itself. Nothing has been added to it.

What a cancellation means if this was your agent

The registration is removed. The agent's name comes off the Register of Migration Agents and they may not give immigration assistance. A cancellation is usually accompanied by a period during which the person may not be registered again.

Nobody is acting on your matter right now. Treat this as urgent, and start with who the Department is writing to.

If this was your agent: the first week

1. Find out where your application actually is. If you have an ImmiAccount, log in. The clock does not stop because your representation did.
2. Check who the Department is writing to. A Form 956 makes an agent the authorised recipient, and correspondence sent to them is taken to have been given to you. A deadline sent to an inbox nobody reads is still a deadline.
3. Get your file. Your documents are yours and the Code requires them back — originals first. How to get your file back.
4. Work out what was paid and what was done. Ask for the itemised invoices and receipts the Code requires. Routes to recover money work better started early.
5. Complain, if there is something to complain about. A published decision does not close your own file. Where to complain, and what OMARA can and cannot do.
6. Only then, find someone else. A new agent needs the file and the dates. The first five steps are what make that first conversation useful instead of exploratory.

What this decision does not mean

It is a decision about one individual on one date. Only a person can be a registered migration agent — a company cannot — so it says nothing about anyone else at the same practice. Decisions of this kind are reviewable, and bars and suspensions expire. The register is where the current position lives.

Decision information sourced from the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority and used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence. VisaBid is not affiliated with OMARA or the Department of Home Affairs.