If you are planning or thinking of moving abroad for overseas opportunities, you must have heard about immigration consultants. With top marketing and PR practices, all social media algorithms would target you. But in such a case comes, the doubt of authenticity and safety. Specially, when we see the incidents in 2023-24, revolving around the immigration industry. The industry was under the heat due to the uncovering of many frauds, and arrests of unlicensed agents acting as consultants. Thus, in such cases how do you verify things? How to know if your Immigration Consultant is Real or Fake?
Things to know before connecting with an immigration consultant
Before you go looking out or begin searching for a consultant do the following things:
Now, no one is asking you to pen down a thesis on the above. But having basic clarity of what you desire can work wonders. It will help you connect with the right consultant, ask the right questions, and assess if their suggestions/plans and pricing suit your case.
For the consultant, it will help them give you a better more streamlined immigration plan that covers all your needs. So, self-research and meditation on this is worth a shot.
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Next is to address the elephant in the room. When you come across or connect with an immigration consultant do the following:
A very simple but crucial step. Check the company’s social media presence, website, Google reviewers, where are they located, are they licensed or not. Because after this you can easily draft questions to ask related to their authenticity and your immigration case.
If an immigration consultant is authentic, they will have this immigration license. Because without this license no person or company can offer you immigration services.
Another thing that you need to check is whether the company is owned by the CICC licensed holder, or the company is affiliated with someone who has it. Remember, if a company does not have a direct link with the license holder then in future the concerned consultant may sever ties or refuse services, and you may not even get to know it.
Multiple cases have surfaced when companies/people pretend to be affiliated but are acting alone. If a company is owned and managed by a CICC licensed holder then the company is bound to offer legal, reliable, and transparent services.
You may not know but the CICC license holders can not overcharge clients for their services. Everything is set, managed, and run under the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) framework.
Once the license check is done, you may need to focus on the consultant’s work experience. Are they a novice or a seasoned professional who has seen, tracked, and managed all immigration changes and cases? Even though a beginner CICC license holder is credible, a seasoned professional can ensure higher chances of visa approval.
Another element to focus on is the company’s portfolio whether they deal with a particular country or are a big global company. Because a licensed company with diverse connections and operations can help you offer much better options and opportunities in multiple countries.
So, according to your needs, you can tailor your search for an immigration consultant accordingly.
The most important point when trying to know if your immigration consultant is fake or real is to check their success rate. To do the same, you can read their Google reviews and see regular website and social media updates.
Another smart thing you can do is check government legal forums to see if they have any ongoing or closed cases against them. Searching this will help you assess the success rate and credibility of the company.
In the modern age, everyone is quick to sue. But when you read the case details and court judgement, you will get to know the right consultant will have the decision in their favour. In a world of strong and tactical consumerism, the clients do all things to avoid payments. This is why licensed immigration consultants are safe from such malpractices and protected by law.
As a result, they can neither cheat nor be convicted on false terms. A win-win situation for both them and the clients they offer their services to.
Physical Presence
If possible, visit the company’s headquarters or branches, if you can do it. By physically being present you can get further assured of the company’s presence, staff presence and their ability to navigate your case.
In case you can not, you must rely on all other points to check if your consultant is real or fake.
We live in an age where technology is on the threshold of surpassing human experience. So, in such a case having a social media presence is basic. Here, as shared, repeatedly, see the services pitched, success stories and comments from people.
Another thing that comes up here, is the issue of trolls. Often, these ne’er-do-wells target a company’s reputation through false claims for selfish or no reason at all.
You may want to see how the company reacts to such comments and after that what action the troll takes. Swift retraction of negative or fake comments shows the legal and credible presence of licensed consultants on social media platforms.
As we say, “appearances are deceptive”, some fake agents and ghost consultants preach their services as the best. They will pull you in with countless shenanigans on social media such as:
The above list of tactics is infinite. But think for yourself, how can an immigration consultant guarantee visa approval, if it is up to the immigration authorities of a particular country to approve or refuse visa applications?
So, always avoid such over-the-top claims. They may say do not pay, but they ask for money in multiple steps. Such as profile assessment, then adding hidden charges in the name of language exams, language training, arranging documents from third parties etc.
In the end eventually, nothing is free. On the contrary, such fake agents are minting money from you. When the visa gets rejected, they will out rightly refuse to indulge you. As they once did with their initial atrocious claims.
When you take a consultation from any company or a consultant, make sure to be clear about how they will assist you as per your need.
The list of questions is endless, and it is up to you to ask. A real immigration consultant will offer complete transparency and clarity. They will even go to the lengths of rejecting your case if they feel your application is not fit for a particular process.
Whereas fake consultants will take any application whether there is a chance of visa success or not.
When trying to check whether your consultant is real or fake, you can search your circle of friends, family members and acquaintances. In case you do not have such luxury, you might want to read Google or Glass Door or any other reviews.
Because often reviewers write that they would recommend the services of the company as they had a positive experience.
In conclusion, the above pointers will easily help you check if your immigration consultant is real or fake.
Your race to know if an immigration consultant is real of fake ends here. Global Vision Immigration (GVI) is a CICC-licensed Canadian immigration firm.
Since 2006, we have been helping countless clients immigrate to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Hongkong, Singapore and Europe. With 18+ years of legacy, we are equipped to lead you towards visa success.
You simply need to sit back and relax, while our experienced and trained Business Development Executives (BDE) under the guidance of our founder/director/CICC-licensed consultant do all the work.
In short, what are you waiting for? Take our Free Assessment or Contact Us to know more.
Mr. Kalyan Paul, President & CEO is the founder of GVI, an MBA in Finance and also a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) from Canada. Mr. Paul has more than 18 years of experience in immigration consulting that made him one of the preferred & valued immigration consultants in the immigration industry. He is a licensed member of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) [Previously known as Immigration Consultants Of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC)] (Membership ID: R417119) which is a professional body of licensed immigration consultants recognized by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
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