Are all Student Agencies fraud? Where should I go for guidance for coming to Canada?

[IndianCanadian16]

So, lately, I get asked a lot about Indian agencies that provide you with offer letters from the colleges to get a visa to Canada.

This is not a new question being asked, t is something I have seen mostly discussed in the threads over here, other blogs and whatsapp groups of students.

First of all, there is a huge difference between a 'Consultancy' & 'Agency'.

Generally speaking, in India, people write 'Edw*** Consultancy' or 'C**am Consultancy" or 'OCEANIC CONSULTANCY" (and thousands more )but they stand no where to being 'GENUINE' Consultants.

These are just shops selling you offer letters for some specific courses from some specific colleges ,that too on diploma or certificate level.


You won't hear them advising you to apply to a MASTERS PROGRAM AT McGill University (world rank 24), or a BA at U of Toronto (WR 30).


So here I am summarizing you in points, what these people actually do:

1. They fool you into getting admission into any irrelevant course, of Their Choice, and Their College.

2. They say, ' we are helping you, we will be standing by you, no matter what. see, how genuine we are, we did not even charge you a penny. we did that all for free.' But actually, the 30% of the 8000 CAD you just paid as your first semester tuition fees at that College for the Diploma, goes directly into their pocket. And this follows for all the the subsequent semester fees you pay. So, when they say, their services are free of cost, they are actually not. The fees are set at such an amount that they can extract their commission from there.

3. They don't give a sh*t, if you landed in Canada or not, or you got the route to reach your college? or if you know the person to contact over there after arrival? or your time table?. So that's basically what an Overseas Educational Consultant is supposed to do. But since none of the single employee of any agency in India is qualified to be so, you can expect the least.

4. THEY WILL CONTACT YOU AND BEG YOU, IF AND ONLY IF, you take a withdraw from that college during the first sem ( this happens due to many reasons). Because once you withdraw, the college tells them that they suck at their job and in worst case might cancel their contracts. The commission given to them is snatched and happy ending.


So, to all the young students, irrespective of their current status in Canada, irrespective of their countries, irrespective of the sessions they are applying for, do your own research first. If you can come here and read this post, you can definitely do some research on how to apply to a college, or a university or for a visa yourself. Or what career option is best suited for you.These things are no rocket science.

There is no point in pursuing a certificate or a Diploma irrelevant to your interests, investing 20000 CAD on it, and still working a $11.40/hr job.

Go for some quality education or other options.

If still you need some guidance, try reaching out to Multi National Consultancy firms in India. By multi national, I mean that they are established in other countries as well ( and not sending students to different nations), and owned by a diverse group of people and not just Indians. It will help you gain the transparency on how things actually work. They will tell you NO, if it is not making sense (like applying for a HR Diploma after doing Btech in India). Reason is they are conscious of their international image rather than earning money like crazies.

So, conclusively, these Indian Agencies that guarantee you visas, PRs or a 50k job, are basically no more than a fraud, and I can confidently say, they are going to meet their fate soon, just as what happened with Oceanic.

 

[Harkarn Preet]

You're from Chandigarh, aren't you?
You named Canam and Edwise right?
The problem with applying for a Masters program at a university is that one simply does not get enough time to work part time and take care of the expenses, let alone taking care about the tuition fee.
I agree that Masters from a renowned university is beneficial and essential. But for someone belonging to a middle class family might not have the courage to ask their parents for money on a regular basis.
Therefore, it is necessary to opt for a course relevant to the study completed prior and choosing a college that falls under the SPP.
Most of the students do not research about the course and neither the college prior to applying.
All they care about is getting a visa and think more about settling down in Canada.
It gets really complicated when they visit a Consultant or any agent and seek to take admission in a college where there is not a burden of studying and helps them in taking up part time work.
IT is essential and important for individuals seeking good education and environment to do complete research about the course and the college they will be taking up, because the agents can simply suggest you the colleges and the courses but it is you who needs to complete the education and live there.
Cheers!

 

[IndianCanadian16]

You're from Chandigarh, aren't you?
You named Canam and Edwise right?
The problem with applying for a Masters program at a university is that one simply does not get enough time to work part time and take care of the expenses, let alone taking care about the tuition fee. No , it is not at all like that, I am an international Masters student at WLU. I work part time at an insurance firm 2 days a week, then I have my depratment funding my tuition fees. I wont say it is very big in amount. but yes, it helps a lot.

I agree that Masters from a renowned university is beneficial and essential. But for someone belonging to a middle class family might not have the courage to ask their parents for money on a regular basis. NO, Its not. I am living in Canada since 2014. Started as a PG Diploma student. Till date, Ihave visited so many universities and met so many professors, just for the purpose of clarification on pursuing a m,asters as an international student. I don't know why Indian students don't prefer doing some research themselves, and totally depend of twhat is fed to them by Agencies. MASTERS/DOCTORAL studies are funded by UNIVERSITIES. ON AN AVERAGE YOU ARE BEING GIVEN A STIPEND OF 12000K PER YEAR by good universities. This stipend mostly covers your Tuition.'therefore, it is NOT necessary to opt for a Diploma course relevant to the study completed prior and choosing a college that falls under the SPP.
Most of the students do not research about the course and neither the college prior to applying. Totally agree.
All they care about is getting a visa and think more about settling down in Canada.
It gets really complicated when they visit a Consultant or any agent and seek to take admission in a college where there is not a burden of studying and helps them in taking up part time work.
IT is essential and important for individuals seeking good education and environment to do complete research about the course and the college they will be taking up, because the agents can simply suggest you the colleges and the courses but it is you who needs to complete the education and live there.
Cheers!

Also, I am from Delhi, but stayed in Chandigarh for two years for my Masters.
there is a very wrong conception about pursuing a Masters among Indian students.

 

[Harkarn Preet]

Also, I am from Delhi, but stayed in Chandigarh for two years for my Masters.
there is a very wrong conception about pursuing a Masters among Indian students.

I wanted to take up Masters program as well but there are some universities who are not even considering students from Punjab region for their Masters Program.
Other than them, there are universities which have certain criteria which are to be fulfilled.
The case with me is that Universities want students with not more than 3 backlogs and I had 5 backlogs in my entire bachelors.
Because of that, I cannot take up Masters program.
Other than that, I was fulfilling all the other criteria.
That is the reason now I have to take up PG diploma.

 

[IndianCanadian16]

I wanted to take up Masters program as well but there are some universities who are not even considering students from Punjab region for their Masters Program.
Other than them, there are universities which have certain criteria which are to be fulfilled.
The case with me is that Universities want students with not more than 3 backlogs and I had 5 backlogs in my entire bachelors.
Because of that, I cannot take up Masters program.
Other than that, I was fulfilling all the other criteria.
That is the reason now I have to take up PG diploma.

If you have finalized with the PG Diploma, then there is no going back for you I guess, but let me tell you one thing,no university can reject you just because you are from Punjab. NO ONE.


And still there are some universities would have accepted you , not that good in rankings.

 

[IndianCanadian16]

Please visit IDP. They are genuine

IDP, Princeton Review, IAE Global they all are some Global Consultancies and operated by people from all the countries and not just Indians.

 

[Harkarn Preet]

Please visit IDP. They are genuine

Well I did visit IDP's office in Chandigarh.
And to be honest, they seem to take things very casually in terms of counseling.
That is the reason I opted to do the research and ground work on my own and hired a known agent just to file my documents.
I did not want to risk facing any sort of rejection.
Therefore I completed my ground work and took it on myself to get everything done.
My agent is just filing my documents for the visa.

 

[IndianCanadian16]

Well I did visit IDP's office in Chandigarh.
And to be honest, they seem to take things very casually in terms of counseling.
That is the reason I opted to do the research and ground work on my own and hired a known agent just to file my documents.
I did not want to risk facing any sort of rejection.
Therefore I completed my ground work and took it on myself to get everything done.
My agent is just filing my documents for the visa.

Harkarn preet:

Always remember, whenever in doubt, regarding visa, colleges, universities, consultancies, always contact the person sitting at the head office respective to the issue.

For instance, if you want to explore more about a specific course at university, contact the university department coordinator, and not any agent in India.

For seeking guidance on study visa and all, don;t connect with Indian IDP agents. Write an email to their head office in Melbourne, telling them IDP India is not helping much that''s why you had to write to them.

Same goes for IAE Global- Head office in Toronto

Princeton Review: somewhere in US.

 

[Picxie]

I had very bad experience with few consultancy here n there...did everything on my own..then got to know about idp frm a friend. Very genuine and straight forward ppl.. visited delhi nehru place.. they told me few things that no other money seeking consultants had mentioned even once.. i was satisified with them..so hired them for my visa filing. Would recommend evrryone to idp nehru place .

 

[shagunsangwan]

I had very bad experience with few consultancy here n there...did everything on my own..then got to know about idp frm a friend. Very genuine and straight forward ppl.. visited delhi nehru place.. they told me few things that no other money seeking consultants had mentioned even once.. i was satisified with them..so hired them for my visa filing. Would recommend evrryone to idp nehru place .

IAE Global is also good. I arrived through Edwise Chandigarh here though, but met students through IAE Global, Toronto office.

They help a lot in creating networks here in Canada. They pick you from airport on arrival and help in accommodation and job aspects as well.


Even though I did not apply through them, on humanitarian reasons, they helped me out in settling here.

 

[Navprateek]

If you have finalized with the PG Diploma, then there is no going back for you I guess, but let me tell you one thing,no university can reject you just because you are from Punjab. NO ONE.


And still there are some universities would have accepted you , not that good in rankings.

I totally agree with you. No university can discriminate based on your home country/destination.
My younger sister applied for her Masters in computers at University of Victoria, University of Western Ontario, University of Ottawa and University of Waterloo. She got her acceptance letter from every single uni she applied at. At the end she picked Waterloo for her studies and got her visa approved in about 40 days.

Her academics were really good. Her total GPA in BTECH was 9.3 from GNDU Amritsar with no backlogs at all. Scored 9.6 in 10th grade and 86% in +2. My understanding is that as long as you have a strong academic background visa officer will not deny your case. The chances will be very minimal.

I am already in Canada and a lot of people kept saying that her chances of getting a visa is very less as she has a sibling who already lives in Canada , this will end up giving her ties to Canada and officer will most likely reject her case. Nothing like this happened. We prepared our own case and submitted it ourselves. No Consultants were involved at all.

From what I have learned and felt is that people in India doesn't want to do any sort of hard work, I am sometimes amazed when people ask others to write their SOP's.

You will also notice that the most of them don't think wisely for example in case of rejection, people start rushing to apply again regardless of getting into the depth of rejection. I have advised so many of them to apply for GCMS/CAIPS and then re-apply for visa so that a person can justify the previous rejection reasons. People just don't understand that the rejections will only and only effect their immigration processes in future the agents who keep telling you to reapply and assuring the approval for the second time will not even console you if the file gets a rejection again.

In the end, if a person is willing to do some hard work - he will find a lot of help and guidance down the road. Now if you don''t even wish to do your own little homework and expects everything to be served then most likely end up with the consultant agencies and will ruin their own future.

 

[IndianCanadian16]

I totally agree with you. No university can discriminate based on your home country/destination.
My younger sister applied for her Masters in computers at University of Victoria, University of Western Ontario, University of Ottawa and University of Waterloo. She got her acceptance letter from every single uni she applied at. At the end she picked Waterloo for her studies and got her visa approved in about 40 days.

Her academics were really good. Her total GPA in BTECH was 9.3 from GNDU Amritsar with no backlogs at all. Scored 9.6 in 10th grade and 86% in +2. My understanding is that as long as you have a strong academic background visa officer will not deny your case. The chances will be very minimal.

I am already in Canada and a lot of people kept saying that her chances of getting a visa is very less as she has a sibling who already lives in Canada , this will end up giving her ties to Canada and officer will most likely reject her case. Nothing like this happened. We prepared our own case and submitted it ourselves. No Consultants were involved at all.

From what I have learned and felt is that people in India doesn't want to do any sort of hard work, I am sometimes amazed when people ask others to write their SOP's.

You will also notice that the most of them don't think wisely for example in case of rejection, people start rushing to apply again regardless of getting into the depth of rejection. I have advised so many of them to apply for GCMS/CAIPS and then re-apply for visa so that a person can justify the previous rejection reasons. People just don't understand that the rejections will only and only effect their immigration processes in future the agents who keep telling you to reapply and assuring the approval for the second time will not even console you if the file gets a rejection again.

In the end, if a person is willing to do some hard work - he will find a lot of help and guidance down the road. Now if you don''t even wish to do your own little homework and expects everything to be served then most likely end up with the consultant agencies and will ruin their own future.

Navprateek

Honestly.

My wife got a PhD acceptance for UWaterloo and U of Calgary. She did all the ground work herself.


I am here since 2014. I came here on my own as a student.


We joined this forum yesterday and are surprised to see how people are so careless while applying for admissions/visas/PR.


Nobody is ready to do a research on the reliability of their choices.

Sad, but true.

 

[Ananymousbat]

Do it yourself it's the best way...

 

[Picxie]

IAE Global is also good. I arrived through Edwise Chandigarh here though, but met students through IAE Global, Toronto office.

They help a lot in creating networks here in Canada. They pick you from airport on arrival and help in accommodation and job aspects as well.


Even though I did not apply through them, on humanitarian reasons, they helped me out in settling here.

That's good!! I heard that people get lower wages than min. Wages set by govt there?? Part time international students especialy as ppl know they are one in need so they will work anyhow!is this true??

 

[Ananymousbat]

Come on people do it yourself don't rely on someone else to do your work every consultant you say is a cheater in one way or other they do ot as a business do let them fool you do ot yourslef....