Using the OMARA Register to Find a Migration Agent

What the OMARA register actually is

The register is hosted at portal.mara.gov.au and maintained by the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA), a regulatory function within the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs. Every person who is legally allowed to provide immigration assistance for a fee in Australia must be registered, and every registered agent appears on the register with their Migration Agent Registration Number (MARN), their current registration status, the date their most recent registration began, and the business contact details they have provided. Every detail page records when the register itself was last updated — a recently verified record was stamped 'register last updated on 09/06/2026 11:50 PM' at the time of writing. The integrity of the register is the reason it can be used as evidence of legitimacy.

What it is good for: verification

If you have an agent's name or MARN, the register answers one question with absolute authority: are they currently registered? Open the register, type the MARN or name, and the detail page tells you the status. If 'Current status' reads anything other than 'Registered', the person cannot legally provide immigration assistance for a fee. The register also lets you check whether a business name an agent is using is associated with that agent's official record — useful when an agent is operating under a trading name that does not match their personal name. A separate checkbox lets you filter the register to agents working only for non-commercial organisations, and the page carries an explicit warning to report unlawful (unregistered) immigration assistance to Border Watch. As a verification tool, the register is what it should be: free, public, accurate, and authoritative.

What it isn't good for: choosing

The register is not built to help you choose between thousands of registered agents. There is no filter for visa type, language spoken, area of specialisation, or fee. There are no reviews, no ratings, no descriptions of how each agent works. The results table sorts by family name, first name, business name, country, suburb or state — useful for finding a specific agent but useless for surfacing the right specialist for your case. A search for 'Sydney' as the business location returned 41 pages of paginated results during a recent verification, with no relevance ranking beyond the column you chose to sort on. The register does not display a national total of registered agents, but the practical population is several thousand. Finding the right agent by scrolling that population manually, then cold-contacting each practice to ask about specialisation and fees, is what makes a directory search feel hopeless. That is not a flaw in the register; it is a feature of being a regulator's register rather than a consumer directory.

What it isn't good for: comparing

The register has no comparison mechanism. There is no side-by-side view, no shortlisting, no way to ask three different agents the same question at once. To get quotes from three agents you would have to find them one by one on the register, get their contact details, write to each separately, explain your situation three times, and try to compare answers that came in different formats on different timelines. That is the process every applicant who relies on the register alone goes through. It is exhausting, and the answers are hard to compare honestly because each agent has heard a slightly different version of your story.

The right way to use the OMARA register

Use it for verification, not discovery. Whatever process you use to find a candidate agent — a recommendation, a Google search, a matching service, a directory — finish that process with a quick OMARA check. Look up the MARN, confirm 'Current status: Registered', and confirm the business name on the detail page matches the business the agent is offering to work under. That two-minute check is the single most important due diligence step you will do, and the register is the only place that can answer it conclusively. If an agent is not on the register, or their status is anything other than current, walk away. Migration assistance from an unregistered person is a criminal offence under the Migration Act 1958, and you have no professional-conduct recourse if something goes wrong.

What can fill the gap between verifying and choosing

A matching service can help with the part the register does not cover — comparison. Migratio is Australia's marketplace for finding and comparing MARA-registered migration agents: you describe your situation once in a single structured brief, and up to three MARA-registered agents who specialise in your visa type respond with their initial consultation fee. Every agent has already been verified on the OMARA register before they can take part. The matching service doesn't replace the register, which remains the authoritative source you should always check; it just solves the comparison job the register was never designed for. It's free for applicants and there's no obligation to choose anyone.

When the OMARA register on its own is enough

There are a few situations where the register on its own is the right tool. If a friend or family member has recommended a specific agent and you simply need to confirm they are who they say they are, the register is the only check you need. If you already know the agent you want to work with — perhaps you used the same agent for an earlier visa — verification is faster than running a fresh search. If you are an academic researcher, journalist, or compliance professional looking at the agent profession as a whole, the register is the most authoritative dataset you can work from. For every other case — choosing between agents, getting quotes, finding a specialist for an unusual visa or a complex situation — the register is the start of the work, not the end.

What is the OMARA register?

The official public register of registered migration agents in Australia, maintained by the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA) within the Department of Home Affairs. Hosted at portal.mara.gov.au. Free, public, no sign-in required.

How do I verify a migration agent on the OMARA register?

Search by name or by Migration Agent Registration Number (MARN). Each detail page shows a 'Current status' field — a current registered agent reads 'Registered'. Anything else means the person cannot legally provide immigration assistance for a fee.

Does the OMARA register show fees, reviews, or specialisations?

No. The register shows the agent's name, MARN, registration status, the date their current registration began, and their published business contact details. There are no fees, no reviews, no ratings, no specialisation filter, and no language filter.

How many agents are on the OMARA register?

The register does not publish a national total on the search interface. The population is several thousand active registrations. A single business-location search for 'Sydney' returned 41 pages of results during recent verification.

Can the OMARA register tell me which agent is best for my visa?

No. The register is not built to recommend or compare agents. It exists to confirm registration and provide contact details. To compare agents who specialise in your specific visa, you need either to cold-contact a shortlist of agents yourself or to use a matching service like Migratio that filters by visa type and lets you compare fees from one brief.

Is using the OMARA register free?

Yes. The register is a public government service, free to search and use, with no account required.