Is your study abroad agent actually allowed to advise on your Australian student visa? MARA registration is mandatory under Australian law — and the absence of it isn’t just a technicality. It determines whether you have any legal recourse if something goes wrong, whether your visa advice is covered by professional indemnity, and, in some cases, whether your application materials are treated as reliable by the Department of Home Affairs.
This article explains what MARA registration means, how to check any agent’s status in under a minute, and what the practical consequences are if you work with an unregistered provider.
What Is MARA?
MARA stands for Migration Agents Registration Authority, the Australian Government body that regulates migration agents under the Migration Agents Regulations 1998. The authority sits within the Department of Home Affairs and maintains a public register of all currently registered migration agents.
Any person or entity — inside or outside Australia — who provides immigration assistance to clients in relation to an Australian visa must either:
- Be registered with MARA as a migration agent, or
- Be a practising Australian lawyer acting in the capacity of a lawyer, or
- Provide assistance for free to a family member
Providing paid migration assistance without registration is a criminal offence under Australian law. This applies whether the agent is based in China, the UK, India, or anywhere else — the law covers any person assisting with an Australian visa application, regardless of where they operate.
How Does Registration Affect a Student Visa Application?
The Australian Subclass 500 student visa involves a Genuine Student (GS) assessment, which requires a written statement explaining why you want to study in Australia, why you chose your specific course, and your post-study intentions. Errors or inconsistencies in this statement — including implausible wording, poor framing of financial circumstances, or misalignment with enrolment history — are a primary cause of refusals.
A MARA-registered agent is legally accountable for the advice they give during this process. Specific consequences of working with an unregistered agent include:
No legal accountability for errors. If an unregistered agent gives you incorrect advice about your GS, your financial evidence requirements, or your visa conditions, they face no regulatory consequence. You — as the visa applicant — bear the legal risk of the refusal and any resulting visa ban.
No mandatory insurance. Registered agents must hold professional indemnity insurance. If their advice causes demonstrable harm (a refusal attributable to agent error), there is a claims mechanism. Unregistered providers carry no such obligation.
Visa officer scepticism. Applications managed by unregistered agents can draw additional scrutiny. The Department of Home Affairs cross-checks details and, in some cases, has flagged applications where agent-provided materials contain patterns inconsistent with genuine student intent.
No complaints process. If you dispute a fee, believe you were misled, or receive no service after paying, there is no regulatory body to complain to about an unregistered agent. MARA provides a formal complaints pathway against registered agents, including disciplinary action up to licence revocation.
How to Verify Any Agent’s MARA Registration
The MARA public register is free, instant, and requires no account:
- Go to https://www.mara.gov.au/working-with-a-migration-agent/register-of-migration-agents/
- Enter the agent’s registration number or company name
- A current registration shows: status (“Current Registration”), expiry date, registered name, and registration number
If a search returns no result or shows “Cancelled” or “Barred,” the agent is not legally permitted to charge for Australian visa advice.
UNILINK’s MARA registration numbers are 1687552 and 1576954. You can verify both at the link above right now.
What About QEAC? Is That Different?
Yes. QEAC (Qualified Education Agent Counsellors) is a separate credential administered by the Australian International Education Association (AIEA). Where MARA covers the visa and migration side, QEAC covers the education counselling side — specifically, ensuring that advisers understand Australia’s higher education system, course requirements, and the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act, which is the legal framework protecting international students enrolled in Australian institutions.
A QEAC-certified counsellor has passed a competency exam and is bound by a code of ethics requiring them to act in the student’s best interests, not to recommend courses primarily based on commission rates, and to provide accurate information about institutions and entry requirements.
UNILINK holds QEAC certification G167, verifiable at https://www.aiea.com.au/qeac/.
In practice: MARA covers whether your visa advice is legal; QEAC covers whether your school selection advice meets a professional standard. Having both means the same organisation is accountable on both fronts.
MARA Registered vs Unregistered: Comparison
| MARA Registered | Unregistered | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal to advise on AU visas | Yes | No |
| Professional indemnity required | Yes | No |
| Bound by agent code of conduct | Yes | No |
| Complaints process available | Yes (MARA) | No |
| Annual CPD requirement | Yes | No |
| Public register entry | Yes, verifiable in 60s | None |
| Risk of criminal liability | Agent bears it | You may bear consequences |
What Agents Say vs. What Registration Actually Means
Several common phrases used in the study abroad industry are worth addressing:
“We’ve placed thousands of students in Australian universities.” Placing students and legally advising on visas are different activities. Volume of placements doesn’t confer legal status to give visa advice. An unregistered agent can have a long track record — until a visa refusal occurs and there’s no recourse.
“We work with official university representatives.” Being on a university’s agent panel is a commercial relationship between the university and the agent. It has no bearing on whether the agent is authorised to advise on Department of Home Affairs visa requirements. Universities do not verify MARA status on behalf of their agents.
“Our service is free, so regulations don’t apply.” The free assistance exemption under Australian law applies only to unpaid assistance to a family member. Providing free services as part of a commercial business model (where the agent earns commission from universities) does not qualify as unpaid assistance. MARA registration is still required.
The Free Service Question
UNILINK charges no service fees to students. No application fee, no visa preparation fee, no document fee, no deposit, no penalty for declining an offer. The business model is straightforward: Australian universities pay agents a commission when a student they refer successfully enrols, at roughly the same rate as the university’s own direct-recruitment costs. The student pays nothing extra.
This model is more common internationally than it is rare, and it is entirely compatible with MARA registration — in fact, MARA-registered agents operating on commission are the norm in the Australian international education sector. What MARA registration adds on top of the free-service model is accountability: the agent is legally bound to act in your best interests even while earning from the university.
UNILINK’s MARA registration (1687552 / 1576954) and QEAC certification (G167) mean that the same agent advising you on school selection is also legally accountable for the visa advice they provide. If you want to verify those numbers before starting a conversation, the links in this article will take you directly to the official registers.
Want to check whether your current agent is MARA registered? The MARA register search takes under a minute: mara.gov.au/register.
If you’d like a no-fee assessment of your study options across Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Singapore, or Malaysia under one agreement, you can reach the UNILINK team via the contact form on our About page or by scanning the WeChat QR code on the homepage.