The short version
Two regulators, two sets of words, one idea: a stranger should be able to check you before they trust you. This note says what the rules say, and how a website can show them. It is not legal advice, and Aditya is not an adviser or a lawyer. Your regulator’s own words are the ones that count: each is linked below, and each was read on 25 September 2026, except the New Zealand trade mark guidance, read on 28 September 2026.
| Where | On the website | Never |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Your IAA number and regulatory details, prominently, with the IAA logo and digital badge; a phone number or email; a privacy notice | Success rates; criticism of other advisers |
| New Zealand | Nothing false or deceptive about you, your licence, your business or a visa; if you show the IAA trade mark, each adviser’s name and licence number beside it | A visa “guaranteed”; a licence you don’t hold |
The United Kingdom: the Immigration Advice Authority
The Immigration Advice Authority (IAA), called the OISC until January 2025, regulates immigration advisers who are not lawyers. Its Code of Standards 2024 came into force on 1 September 2024.
What the rules say
- Code 6.1: display your IAA registration number where appropriate. The guidance notes say the IAA expects it on your letterhead, website and email, and that the digital badge can go on your website.
- The IAA’s practice note on promotional material (updated 21 May 2025), paragraph 10: a website must prominently display the IAA’s regulatory details and your unique number, and should include the IAA logo and digital badge.
- Paragraph 11: if you advise online, a phone number or an email address the client can use to reach you directly. Paragraph 12: a privacy policy statement.
- Paragraph 8: any page in another language needs an identical English version that is easy to find. Paragraph 9: a company should give its registered details, including when it trades under another name.
- Paragraph 7: testimonials only as the client volunteered them, with their knowledge, and accurate. The IAA may ask to see the records behind them.
- Codes 6.4 and 6.5: no criticism of other organisations or advisers in promotional material, and no promotional statements about your success rates.
- The guidance to Code 8.1: advertising must explain the services offered, and the authorised levels and categories of the people who provide them, accurately. If you advise online, say what you are authorised to provide, how long it usually takes and what it costs.
How a site shows it
- Your number, level and categories in the first screen and the footer of every page, with the badge linked to the IAA’s adviser finder.
- A page for each service you are authorised for, with its cost and a realistic timeframe.
- Testimonials only with the client’s permission, and the record kept.
- Every page in another language with its English twin one tap away.
New Zealand: the Immigration Advisers Authority
What the rules say
- Only a licensed adviser, or someone exempt, may give immigration advice about New Zealand (Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007, section 63). Holding yourself out as an adviser, or as licensed, when you are not is an offence too (sections 64 and 65).
- The Licensed Immigration Advisers Code of Conduct 2014, still the code in force, clause 29: an adviser must not misrepresent, or promote in a false, fraudulent or deceptive way, themselves (including their licence status or type), their business, their employees, the client, immigration opportunities or risks, or New Zealand’s immigration requirements.
- The Authority’s own example of a breach: advertising that a visa is 100% guaranteed, because the adviser is not the one who decides.
- Clause 32: “A licensed immigration adviser must, if using the ‘Licensed by Immigration Advisers Authority’ trade mark, do so in accordance with the Trade Mark Licence Agreement.” The Authority’s guidance on clause 32, read on 28 September 2026, says what that means. In its own words: “Display the adviser’s name next to the Trade Mark” and “Display the adviser’s licence number alongside the Trade Mark”; in a firm, “the names of all licensed advisers” must be “clearly visible in close proximity to the Trade Mark”; an adviser must not use it in a way that creates “an impression that their company or business trade name is licensed”; and “On a website, the Trade Mark must not be displayed as hidden text or in a linked page to the Trade Mark.”
No clause of the Code says, in so many words, “put your licence number on your website”. But if your site shows the trade mark, the Authority’s guidance asks for your name and licence number right beside it. Either way, showing the number is the quickest way to prove the one thing clause 29 protects: your licence status.
How a site shows it: a site Aditya built
On the site Aditya built for a licensed adviser in Tauranga, the licence number sits beside the adviser’s name near the top of the home page, one tap from the public register, and again at the foot of all twelve pages. Every page ends by saying that Immigration New Zealand makes the final decision and that no outcome is guaranteed. How it was built, and why.
A checklist that covers both
- Your number where a stranger lands, on a phone, without scrolling.
- The register one tap away, and its address written out where your regulator asks for it.
- No success rate, no guarantee, and nothing that says you can get someone a visa.
- Testimonials only with written consent, word for word.
- A way to reach you directly: phone, WhatsApp or email.
- A privacy notice.
- The same in every language you publish in.
If your site already does all seven, it is doing its job. If it doesn’t, the five checks on the advisers’ page are a quicker place to start, and the page itself shows the site we would build.
Sources
- Immigration Advice Authority, Code of Standards 2024, in force from 1 September 2024. Read 25 September 2026. Open it
- Immigration Advice Authority, Code of Standards 2024: Guidance Notes. Read 25 September 2026. Open it
- Immigration Advice Authority, “Promotional material: practice note”, published 5 December 2016, updated 21 May 2025. Read 25 September 2026. Open it
- GOV.UK, “Find an immigration adviser”. Read 25 September 2026. Open it
- Immigration Advisers Authority (New Zealand), “Offences under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act”. Read 25 September 2026. Open it
- Immigration Advisers Authority (New Zealand), “Code of conduct”: the Licensed Immigration Advisers Code of Conduct 2014, in force. Read 25 September 2026. Open it
- Immigration Advisers Authority (New Zealand), Code of Conduct toolkit, “Misrepresentation”. Read 25 September 2026. Open it
- Immigration Advisers Authority (New Zealand), Code of Conduct toolkit, “Trade mark” (clause 32). Read 28 September 2026. Open it