What must a migration agent record after a client call?

Much of a migration matter is discussed out loud: the initial consultation, the callback about a document, the short conversation in which a client changes their instructions. The Code of Conduct does not treat those conversations as ephemeral. It requires a written record of them, made to a timing standard, and it places that record inside the client file.

1. Section 55 requires a written record, in full

“A migration agent must make a contemporaneous written record of oral communications between the agent and a client in relation to immigration assistance, including: (a) oral instructions the client gives the agent; and (b) oral advice the agent gives the client.”

Three requirements sit in that provision. The record must be written — not remembered, not summarised verbally to a colleague. It must be contemporaneous. And it must cover oral communications between the agent and the client in relation to immigration assistance, in both directions.

2. Contemporaneous is the operative word

The provision does not define the word or fix a number of hours or days. What governs is its ordinary meaning: a record made at the time of the communication, or as soon as reasonably practicable after it — not notes reconstructed weeks later when a matter is being reviewed. A file note written at the end of the same day, or before the next contact with the client, is defensible on its face. A note written from memory after the matter has moved on is not the same thing, and it cannot show when the instructions were actually given.

The record must also be written, but the instrument does not prescribe a form for it. Subsection 56(4) confirms the medium it may live in:

“A client file may be kept in written or electronic form, or partly written and partly electronic form.”

A dated file note in a matter management system is written form. A phone's call log is not a record of what was said, and a verbal debrief is not written at all.

3. It runs in both directions: instructions in, advice out

Section 55(a) and (b) name the two limbs explicitly, and they are symmetric obligations:

“oral instructions the client gives the agent”

“oral advice the agent gives the client”

The first limb is what the client told the agent to do. The second is what the agent told the client. A file that captures only the client's instructions leaves the advice limb uncovered; a file that captures only the agent's advice leaves the instructions limb uncovered. Both are records section 55 requires, and a single file note of a call can carry both.

4. Those records are part of the client file

Section 55 does not stand alone. Section 56 requires a client file to exist and then lists what that file must contain:

“A migration agent for a client must ensure that a client file is created and maintained for the client.”

“The client file must include the following:”

“all records made under section 55 in relation to the client”

Paragraph 56(2)(d) is the link between the two duties. It does not say the file may include section 55 records; it lists them among the contents the file must include. The consequence is placement. A record of a client call belongs in the client file, not in a private notebook, a personal inbox, or an individual phone, because the file is the thing that is retained and produced.

5. Retention, and access on request

Because the section 55 record is part of the client file, the file's retention rule applies to it:

“A migration agent who has a duty under subsection (1) in relation to a client file must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the client file is kept for a period of 7 years after the last action on the file for the relevant client.”

“A migration agent must give the Authority access to a client file that is in the possession of the agent, or a member of the agent’s business, if the Authority, in writing, requests access to the client file for the purposes of the Authority carrying out its functions under paragraphs 316(1)(a) to (d) of the Act.”

Two consequences follow. First, the 7-year period runs from the last action on the file, so the record of a first consultation stays live for as long as the matter does. Second, the Authority may request access to the file in writing, which means the record has to be retrievable and readable when it is asked for — not merely stored somewhere.

What this requires in practice

• A written, dated file note for every oral communication with a client about the matter, made at the time or as soon as reasonably practicable afterwards.
• Both directions captured in the same record: the instructions the client gave, and the advice the agent gave.
• The record filed in the client file, because section 56(2)(d) makes it a required part of that file.
• The record retained for the 7 years that run from the last action on the file, under section 56(5).
• The record kept in written or electronic form, both of which section 56(4) permits.
• The record producible to the Authority on written request, under section 56(9).

Practice takeaway. Section 55 is a timing rule as much as a record-keeping rule: the record must be contemporaneous and it must capture both what the client instructed and what the agent advised. Section 56(2)(d) then makes that record part of the client file, where it stays for 7 years after the last action on the file and must be produced to the Authority on request.