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Immigration Act 2009

Offences, penalties, and proceedings - Offences

352: Offences by education providers

You could also call this:

“Rules for education providers about who can study at their institution”

If you are an education provider, you need to be careful about who you allow to study at your institution. You can get in trouble if you let someone study when they are not allowed to under the Immigration Act.

You can’t knowingly let someone start or continue a course if they don’t have the right to do so. This applies even if the person started studying before this rule came into effect.

However, you won’t get in trouble for letting someone without study rights take part in compulsory education.

If you are accused of letting someone study when they shouldn’t, you can defend yourself by showing that you didn’t know they weren’t allowed to study and that you took reasonable steps to check if they were allowed.

Just saying you didn’t know is not enough to defend yourself, except in the case mentioned above.

If you’re accused of this offence, the charge can mention any day the person was studying, not just when they started.

When we talk about letting someone study, this includes accepting them to enrol in a course.

If an immigration officer told you in writing in the last 12 months that someone isn’t allowed to study in New Zealand, the law will treat you as if you knew this fact.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1441160.

Topics:
Immigration and citizenship > Visas
Education and learning > Higher education
Government and voting > Government departments
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Part 10 Offences, penalties, and proceedings
Offences

352Offences by education providers

  1. Every education provider commits an offence against this Act who—

  2. allows or continues to allow any other person to undertake a course of study knowing that the person is not entitled under this Act to undertake the course; or
    1. allows any other person to undertake a course of study if the person is not entitled under this Act to undertake the course.

      1. Subsection (1)(a) applies whether the person commenced the course of study before or after the commencement of this section.

      2. No person commits an offence under subsection (1) by reason of allowing or continuing to allow a person who is not entitled to study in New Zealand to undertake compulsory education.

      3. It is a defence to a charge under subsection (1)(b) that the education provider—

      4. did not know that the person was not entitled to undertake the course of study; and
        1. took reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence to ascertain whether the person was entitled to undertake that course.

          1. Except as provided in subsection (4), it is not a defence to a charge under subsection (1)(b) that the education provider did not know that the person was not entitled under this Act to undertake that course of study.

          2. A charge alleging an offence against this section may specify any day on which it is alleged the person was undertaking the course of study, and need not state the day on which it is alleged that the person commenced the course.

          3. For the purposes of this section, allowing a person to undertake a course of study includes accepting the person for enrolment in the course.

          4. For the purposes of this section, a person is treated as knowing that another person is not entitled under this Act to study in New Zealand if, at any time in the preceding 12 months (whether before or after the commencement of this section), the person has been informed of that fact in writing by an immigration officer.

          Compare
          Notes
          • Section 352(6): amended, on , by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).