Unsure if a website is a legitimate immigration consultant or an immigration fraudster looking for its next victim?
Immigration or citizenship services are offered by third-party agencies that provide consulting and advice to people who wish to immigrate to Canada or other countries. They assess if your skills and work experience are aligned with demand, and tell you what documents to prepare, and when to submit them.
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Immigration fraud: things to watch out for
You are hiring immigration consultants for their knowledge to expedite your application. It is possible to lodge your claim yourself, but it requires enough knowledge of the immigration system, often accomplished by diligence and research.
Thus, employing an immigration agency is often an efficient and time-saving option. If you don’t have enough time or the necessary knowledge on what to do, you can hire the services of an immigration consultant. Certain consultants are authorized and accredited by governments to transact with migrant applicants, but there are others that make false claims and offer false promises.
Although a website of an agency may not tell the entire story and should not be used as the only basis to judge an agency as legitimate or fraudulent, there are tell-tale signs that it’s fake or a scam:
They charge fees for forms you’ll fill out
They charge — no matter how minimal – – for ways that are generally available for download at no cost at official websites of IRCC. Demanding payment in exchange for handing out a form does not outright make them fraudsters, but be cautious as to whatever service they will charge you later.
If they will charge you for minor items, they could do the same for other items that would otherwise be available for free.
They offer jobs
Some employment agencies double as immigration consultants. They have a list of job offers purportedly coming from Canadian employers and invite job seekers to apply. Being a licensed employment agency does not automatically grant one the right to provide advice to customers as immigration consultants.
They are supposed to be immigration agents and not employment agents so you better be cautious when you encounter such practices. Once they get hold of your money, you may find it hard to recover your payment.
They offer travel advice
They use Canadian cities as travel destinations and talk more about attractions than immigration pathways. They tout tourist visa applications rather than immigrant document requirements nor pathway to citizenship.
While travel agents are a perfectly legal profession, don’t be misled by those who pretend to be an immigration consultants but can only offer you advice as short-term visitors.
They pretend to be a government agency representative
Some fake immigration consultants behave and speak like they are the government: they remind applicants of missed payments or extra steps they failed to accomplish. This conversation may soon lead to a demand for payment.
Communication comes from a generic email address
Scammers have become so sophisticated that they use professional-sounding company names and email domains. However, there are those who still use Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo! addresses — perhaps to save costs and be more convenient to set up.
Although users of generic emails should not be automatically associated with the scam, the use of such types of email addresses is perceived to be less professional and, therefore, less trustworthy, a step closer to that of a fraudster.
They have unreachable contact details
A company may have a professional-looking website complete with more information, including promises of the money-back guarantee, glowing testimonials, and high ratings on review websites.
However, when you check their contact details, none of the options seem to work. Their Canadian address might not exist at all, the email address does not respond to your inquiry, and the number placed is unreachable.
Other tell-tale signs you could be dealing with a scam artist pretending to be an immigration consultant. Targeting those who are in the midst of their Canadian visa application, scammers make unsolicited calls as federal employees of IRCC. They tell the applicants they have failed to comply with certain steps or forgot to submit specific requirements and need to pay a certain amount for an arbitrary fee such as application surcharge or management fee.
Be aware of the following when engaging in a call with a supposed government employee asking about your immigration application update.
- IRCC will not telephone applicants to collect or follow up on money or payments. The only time the government will contact applicants is by telephone to get more information from them to continue processing an application or to ask for more documents. Not about payments.
- As applicants have already submitted their personal information through the application form, IRCC will not ask them to confirm such information in a call. Be careful not to disclose personal information such as date of birth, passport number, or mother’s maiden name as this can be used to steal identity, also known as identity theft. Armed with such info, scammers could impersonate you on other transactions such as bank withdrawals, or take login information on your online banking account.
The name of the consultant or company he or she is claiming to represent is not listed in the authorized list by the Canadian government. Although non-authorized agents may still provide service and get their lodged applications to succeed, applicants should exercise due diligence about their background.
The scammer sends an email about the supposed discrepancy of the application put forward. Content of the purported immigration email appears genuine (with reference numbers, logos, and grammar impeccably are written). But scrutinize content as governing bodies such as the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program has warned of the following:
- The OINP will not email a certificate of Nomination
- Contact phone number should have a corresponding area code identified with a Canadian province
- The name of the immigration agency may not match the current one. For example, the letter may refer to Citizenship and Immigration Canada as the immigration authority and not the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada.
- Scammers may ask applicants to pay through a wire service such as Western Union and not through the official payment gateway.
As an applicant hoping to succeed in immigrating to Canada, what else can you do to protect yourself from scammers?
- Do a Web search to see if anyone has reported any problems with an agent or consultancy company. Look upon reviews and get other people’s opinions.
- Verify the information provided on the website, social media posts, and other content before formally entrusting your application to them. You can do so by calling them and asking a few questions. If their promises are too good to be true, then you should know what to do: avoid them.
- Never disclose your personal information to anyone you don’t know, especially if you haven’t met them yet.
- If you choose to pay for a service, understand what you will receive for your money before you accept or sign anything. Get proof of transactions, such as receipts.
- When filling out a form as an expression of interest, with the expectation of getting someone to respond to you, make sure you are accessing a secured website before sharing your private information (name, date of birth, passport number, etc.). If the website’s address is not displayed on the Internet browser has HTTPS or a padlock symbol, don’t proceed.
Report an immigration fraud
- For more details on how to report a suspected scam or immigration fraud, check out the help center of the Government of Canada.
