4 signs that your immigration representative is a fraud
"Too good to be true
You've probably heard of cases of Canadian immigration fraud. You may even know someone who has paid an immigration representative who disappeared after the first payment, with no news of his or her immigration application. Perhaps they never submitted their application to the government... For years, many people have been posing as immigration consultants to extort money from you in exchange for the promise of an immigration document.
Here are 4 clues to help you spot these immigration scammers:
1. YOU DO NOT FIND YOUR CONSULTANT IN THE CCIC OR IN THE ROLL OF A PROFESSIONAL ORDER OF ONE OF THE CANADIAN PROVINCES
Professional associations are there to protect the public from fraud. To make sure the representative is authorized, ask for his or her RCIC membership number, or which bar association he or she belongs to (if he or she claims to be a lawyer). Professional immigration bodies have a list of members on their websites. If this is not the case, you can call the professional association to verify that the person is a member.
o PRÉCISION POUR LA PROVINCE DU QUÉBEC : pour vous représenter auprès du gouvernement du Québec(MIFI), un consultant doit être réglementé aussi au Québec (un consultant inscrit au Registre québécois des consultants en immigration, un avocat membre du Barreau du Québec, un notaire membre de la Chambre des notaires du Québec ou toute autre personne autorisée par la Chambre de notaires ou le Barreau du Québec) et pas seulement au Canada.
o ATTENTION: A lawyer who is a member of the bar association of your country of origin is not authorized to represent you if he or she is not a member of a Canadian bar association or the Collège des consultants en immigration et citoyenneté (CCIC) (Example: A lawyer who is a member of the Casablanca bar association is not authorized to represent you in a Canadian immigration application unless he or she is also a member of the CCIC or a Canadian bar association).
For more information, or to check whether your representative is authorized to represent you, we invite you to consult the following websites:
For immigration consultants :
- Collège des consultants en immigration et en citoyenneté(CCIC) : https://college-ic.ca/?l=fr-CA
- Quebec Register of Immigration Consultants : https://www.donneesquebec.ca/recherche/dataset/registre-quebecois-des-consultants-en-immigration/resource/3351c4c7-bea5-433b-82a9-57e00489beaf
For lawyers who are members of the Quebec Bar: https://www.barreau.qc.ca/fr/bottin-des-avocats/#!/search
For a notary member of the Chambre des notaires du Québec: https://trouverunnotaire.cnq.org/
For other provincial bars: https://www.canada.ca/fr/immigration-refugies-citoyennete/services/representant-immigration-citoyennete/choisir/autorise.html
A person acting in an unpaid capacity: You should be aware that a person you pay to represent you must be authorized to represent you. Conversely, a person who helps you with your immigration application free of charge does not have to be authorized by a professional association. You can therefore authorize your brother or a friend to help you or even represent you free of charge before the government, if you wish.
2. THE REPRESENTATIVE GUARANTEES THAT YOU WILL OBTAIN AN IMMIGRATION DOCUMENT (E.G. STUDY PERMIT, WORK PERMIT, PERMANENT RESIDENCE, CITIZENSHIP, VISITOR VISA)
An authorized immigration representative (lawyer or consultant) has no right to guarantee that you will obtain immigration status in Canada. No one can guarantee the success of your immigration application. The decision to grant you status in Canada is made by a Canadian government immigration officer, not by the immigration representative. The immigration representative submits your file, but he or she cannot grant you immigration status. The final decision on your immigration application rests with the government.
Immigration representatives have an obligation of means, not an obligation of result. In fact, professional immigration bodies such as the CCIC and the Quebec Bar prohibit their members from promising results.
3. THE IMMIGRATION CONSULTANT DOES NOT HAVE YOU SIGN A FEE AGREEMENT
An authorized immigration representative is a member of a regulated professional order, and therefore has an obligation to detail the scope of his or her services and the terms of payment. This is often done by signing a fee agreement. The fee agreement is the service contract you sign with your lawyer. This contract sets out the cost of his services, the scope of his mandate, his mode of remuneration and the various terms of your lawyer-client relationship. In fact, the Collège des consultants en immigration et en citoyenneté requires immigration consultants to sign a contract with their client before providing their services in an immigration proceeding.
A word of advice: don't pay your immigration consultant until you've signed a contract. And read your contract carefully before you sign it.
The following is an excerpt from the Regulations Governing the CCIC Professional Service Contract:
"4.2 A licensee shall enter into a professional service contract with the customer describing the scope of services between the customer and the licensee. Once the professional service contract has been signed, the customer may give written power of attorney to a designated representative to act on the customer's behalf when dealing with the licensee."
4. THE REPRESENTATIVE OFFERS TO PREPARE YOUR IMMIGRATION APPLICATION AT TOO LOW A PRICE OR IN TOO SHORT A TIMEFRAME
Have you met an immigration representative who promises to prepare and submit your work permit in 2 days? Is your representative charging you a pittance to prepare your immigration application?
A complete and well-done immigration application can take several hours to complete. An immigration application should generally contain all the required forms, a detailed letter from the representative and all the required supporting documents. Any errors in your forms or documents can result in the refusal of your application. For this reason, preparing a complete immigration application can take several days, at a cost that reflects the number of hours spent on your application. A representative who has promised you an application ready in 1 or 2 days at a very low price is often indicative of fraud. Anyone can find forms on the Internet and fill them out for you. However, a good authorized representative has certain knowledge that enables him or her to better fill out the form and know whether your supporting documents are adequate. An immigration consultant who asks you to obtain better supporting documents or who asks you for details on how to fill out your form better is often a good sign, because a good immigration application is one made with rigor and attention to detail.
This article contains general information on immigration, is intended to simplify the terms and does not constitute legal advice. For full legal advice, contact us at.
