By Roland Maconda · Published on · 2 min read · Protecting yourself
It is the most useful question you can ask, and almost nobody asks it. Not out of naivety: because it feels rude. People hesitate to ask for credentials from someone who has just promised them a future.
Ask it anyway, and ask it every time.
Why this check changes everything
A regulated immigration consultant is registered with a regulator. That registration brings a code of professional conduct, professional liability insurance and a disciplinary regime. Above all it brings one thing: someone can be turned to if things go wrong.
An unlicensed intermediary has none of that. No insurance, no regulator, no professional complaints procedure. If they disappear, only the criminal route remains, in a country that is probably not yours, against a person whose first name may be all you know.
The check, step by step
1. Ask for the full name and the registration number. A licensed professional gives both without hesitating, often before being asked. Hesitation, an evasive answer, a promise to send the details "later": the answer has already been given.
2. Open the public register yourself. Not a link someone sends you: type the address yourself. For Canada, the register of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants is at college-ic.ca.
3. Search by number, not by name. People share names. Registration numbers do not.
4. Compare what appears. Does the name match exactly? Is the registration status active? Are there any notations?
5. Check that the person you are speaking to is that person. This is the step everyone forgets. A valid number belonging to somebody else is still a valid number, and this is a common fraud: impersonating a real professional.
What a check does not tell you
It tells you the person is authorised to practise. It does not tell you they are competent for your file, that they will be available, or that their fee is reasonable. Those are separate questions, and they need asking too.
Nor does it tell you that a licensed consultant may recruit. Recruiting foreign workers falls under a different authorisation, from a different authority. Anyone doing both must hold both, and be able to show you both numbers.
And for us
Roland Maconda, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, CICC no. R482731. The register is here. Go before you write to us, not after.
A question on this subject? Write to us, the answer is free.