Since 2021, lawyers with an unrestricted practising certificate give immigration assistance as lawyers and sit outside the OMARA scheme. The CPD that applies to you is your law society’s: 10 units a year, self-assessed. Migration law is your substantive law, and that is where Widen’s sessions fit.
Every Australian jurisdiction requires practising lawyers to complete 10 CPD units in the CPD year running 1 April to 31 March, with at least one unit in each compulsory field. Units are self-assessed: an activity counts if it is relevant to your practice and extends your knowledge or skills. A two-hour interactive migration-law workshop is two units of substantive law for an immigration lawyer. OMARA points are irrelevant to you unless you are also a registered migration agent.
| Requirement | Immigration lawyer (unrestricted certificate) |
|---|---|
| OMARA CPD (10 points, Category A, mandatory topics) | Does not apply. You are not a registered migration agent. |
| Law society CPD: 10 units a year | Applies. CPD year 1 April to 31 March; declaration at practising certificate renewal. |
| Compulsory fields | Applies. At least one unit in each: ethics and professional responsibility; practice management and business skills; professional skills; and, in most jurisdictions, substantive law. |
| Caps on private study | Most societies cap private study of recorded or written material (typically 5 units). Live interactive seminars, including online ones, are usually uncapped. |
| Records | You keep your own log; societies audit a sample each year. Keep the certificate, the date, the duration and a line on relevance. |
| Migration (Migration Agents Code of Conduct) Regulations | Do not apply. The Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules and your society’s rules do. |
Rules differ in detail between societies. Check your own society’s CPD rules for the field names, caps and record-keeping expectations. If you hold a restricted certificate and are still a registered migration agent, the OMARA framework applies with an exemption: read this instead →
General legal CPD programmes cover immigration thinly, often one session a year. The law you practise changed structurally in 2024 and 2025 (Skills in Demand, the employer-compliance reforms, the Administrative Review Tribunal) and again for agents in 2026. Sessions built on the current instruments, presented by someone preparing nominations this month, are substantive law in the sense the rules intend. They also cost A$30 a session rather than the several hundred dollars a legal conference charges per day.
| Field | Example | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Ethics and professional responsibility | Your law society’s ethics session | 1 |
| Practice management and business skills | Your society or a practice-management provider | 1 |
| Professional skills | Widen live workshop: ART review strategy, submissions and evidence | 2 |
| Substantive law | Widen CPD Weekend: three further live workshops | 6 |
| Total | 10 | |
Live two-hour workshops on Zoom at A$30 incl. GST, a 10-point weekend for A$220, and self-paced modules. Certificates show date, duration, presenter and content for your law society log. Lawyers book exactly as agents do; enter your practising certificate number where a MARN is asked for and email cpd@widen.com.au so the certificate reads correctly.
See upcoming workshops The 10-point weekend← Back to the full CPD requirements guide
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Running a migration practice? Widen also does nomination documents, GPS statements, AMSR reports and 407 training plans for agents — see agent services.