Immigration consultant
- Thread starter Swati993
- Start date
Do you own application, it's not difficult, it's easier than studying for sure. You'll far more likely choose an appropriate institution and not the ones obvious from this forum consultants make money from.
Free? Yeah right. Nothing is for free. You might not be paying them, but they are making money from the Colleges they recommend for students. They do get commissions for every student they convince (or confuse) into accepting offers from low-rated colleges.
Exactly. This is why the same names come up frequently here. I know little about colleges, but from this forum alone, I'd predict 2 starting with C, another starting with S and another with F pay Indian consultants commission. There are 100s of pages in a search for these colleges.
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Free.
Nothing is free in this world mate, not a damn thing.
Those consultants make a quite a lot of money from college commissions, which is why they recommend students with bachelors or masters to apply for colleges, which is a great way to get rejected by the VISA officer.
From what I know, the fees for the courses recommended by agents are also slightly inflated than going directly through the college. This way college partly recovers the commission from the student. I may be wrong but this is what ive read.
Wow, that is disgusting. And it's more reason I think the government needs to crack down on these consultants and agents getting rich off directing unqualified applicants to low-ranked college courses that don't fit their profile.
If the consultants are not living in Canada it is up to their government to regulate them. Canada can’t do anything. They are essentially acting like a “friend” helping you fill out your application,
But of course they have to complete form 5476 (use of a representative), in which case without ICCRC membership they're misrepresenting themselves as an uncompensated "friend" of the applicant when there is in fact an under-the-table financial relationship.
So while on the one hand it's not Canada's job to stop people from wasting their money on these consultants and they certainly have no reason to turn down more application fees, on the other hand you'd think they'd have some more interest in maintaining the integrity of the system.
If you want to get an advice from immigration consultant, my suggestions are:
1) make sure they are licensed and located in Canada
2) pay hourly or half an hour for consultation, not for them to give you a school or lead your case
3) fill the entire application on your own, but give your SOP to consultant for a read (because they are actually really useful and know exactly what the officer is looking for)
I did get advice from a consultant, some of it was questionable like why the heck do I need by birth certificate. But regarding SOP, she did her job well. Even though, my husband and I were super not interesting clients for her since I found and got accepted into the school on my own ahaha
1) make sure they are licensed and located in Canada
2) pay hourly or half an hour for consultation, not for them to give you a school or lead your case
3) fill the entire application on your own, but give your SOP to consultant for a read (because they are actually really useful and know exactly what the officer is looking for)
I did get advice from a consultant, some of it was questionable like why the heck do I need by birth certificate. But regarding SOP, she did her job well. Even though, my husband and I were super not interesting clients for her since I found and got accepted into the school on my own ahaha
If you need advice from an immigration consultant, my recommendations is :
- Ensure they are licensed and based in USA.
- Opt for hourly consultations rather than paying for services like selecting a school or managing your case.
- Complete the application independently but have the consultant review your Statement of Purpose (SOP), as their insights can be invaluable in aligning with what immigration officers seek.