By law, in Canada only lawyers, paralegals, Quebec notaries, and RCICs can provide immigration advice.
A ghost consultant is someone who may or may not charge you a lot of money to provide advice and might even fill out your application forms for you. In some cases, they may ask you to lie or create fake documents as well, or charge you a lot of money to have them created which is highly illegal.
Why do people trust ghost consultants?
Maybe some ghost consultants own an immigration company that is not registered with the College of Immigration Consultants of Canada (previously known as the ICCRC). They tell people that they are an immigration company and they can help people move to Canada.
What ghost consultants don’t tell people, however, is that they actually do not have any staff who can provide legal advice. And since many people do not know how to check if the “immigration consultant” is legally allowed to do so, the ghost consultant can get away with doing many illegal activities.
Our first piece of advice is: if the person you are working with is supposed to be an RCIC, go to https://www.college-ic.ca and check that they are an RCIC by using the “Find an Immigration Consultant” search form. If you cannot find the person’s R-number, you should stop working with the person immediately.
What is an R-number?
According to the annual report in 2021 from CCIC, there are about 8,000 RCIC all over the world. Every Regulated Immigration Consultant has their own unique R-number. The format is the capital letter R followed by a 6-digit number. For example, Mingqi Bi’s of Wellspring Immigration is R709268.
If you put Mingqi’s R-number into “Find an Immigration Consultant” search form, you will find her name, ways to contact her, and her company’s information.
A ghost consultant, on the other hand, will never let you know their R-number because they don’t have one.
What might be the difference between the contract RCICs sign with their clients and the ones used by a ghost consultant?
The contract ghost consultants use is not legitimate. For example, a couple of “red flags” you might notice on a contract that show it’s illegitimate are:
- It’s not in English or French.
- You cannot find this immigration consultant’s R-number and legal full name on it.
Other clues to spotting a ghost consultant:
- A ghost consultant’s advertising is usually misleading. Some of the things you might spot is “100% Guaranteed Approval”. Part of the regulations for RCICs specify they cannot provide guarantees as they are not realistic nor are they something an RCIC can control. Advertising guarantees is in violation of the CICC’s regulations.
- The ghost consultant advertises or tells their potential clients that if the application is not approved, clients can get all their money back. This is called contingency billing and is illegal in the immigration industry. Again, this is a violation of the CICC’s regulations.
- Guaranteed jobs are another red flag. Nobody can or should be guaranteeing you a job in Canada as it completely depends on if the employers think you meet the job requirements and have the ability to work for the company.
- If the consultant asks you to pay for a job or a job offer, this is a scam. It is illegal to buy jobs or job offers from employers or immigration consultants. If you believe you have been the victim of a ghost consultant or immigration scam, please file a complaint through the CICC using this website.
