Marzena Siedlecka: registration suspended by OMARA on 12 Sep 2023

What the Authority decided

On 12 September 2023, the Office of the Migration Agent Registration Authority (the Authority) suspended the registration of migration agent Ms Marzena Siedlecka (MARN 0701955) for a period of six (6) months and subject to conditions following an investigation into a complaint in relation to the Agent’s conduct.

The Authority found that the Agent breached her obligations under clauses 2.1, 2.3, 2.17, 5.2, 5.3, 5.5 and 6.1 of the former Code for registered migration agents (“the fomer Code”); and sections 28, 32 and 56 of the Migration Agents Code of Conduct, current from 1 March 2022 (“the Code”).

The Authority found that the Agent:

• breached multiple clauses of the former Code and the Code showing an indifference to her professional obligations;
• attempted to distance herself from her professional responsibilities, as a registered migration agent, by failing to keep and maintain, proper client records which has prevented her from adequately responding to requests made by the Authority;
• failed to deal with her clients competently, diligently or fairly; resulting in financial loss to a client and the provision of futile immigration assistance.

A copy of the decision with personal information redacted is available below.

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 suspension means if this was your agent

The registration is suspended for a set period. During it the agent may not lawfully give immigration assistance — not to you, not to anyone. Section 280 of the Migration Act makes paid immigration assistance by an unregistered person a criminal offence, and a suspended agent is unregistered for the duration.

This is the outcome that most often catches people mid-matter, because the agent is still there and the suspension has an end date. If your matter can wait, it may be able to wait. If you have a response deadline from the Department inside the suspension period, it cannot.

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.