What to do if your Canadian immigration representative defrauds you, breaks the law while representing you or breaks an immigration law

If you are paying someone to represent you in your Canadian immigration application you need to ensure that you have chosen someone who is authorized to deal with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Those people include:

If you have paid someone who is not listed above, they are not authorized to deal with CIC or the CBSA on your behalf, which could cause potential issues with your application (For more on this read our past blog “Immigration Consultants – We’re not all bad”).

What should you do though if you have chosen to pay someone who is authorized to deal with CIC/CBSA and they do something which is illegal or unethical? You have several options available to you depending on the illegal/unethical actions and where you and them are located. You can:

1) Contact the regulatory board who oversees the representative

2) Contact the consumer protection agency in the country which the representative operates

3) Contact your local law enforcement agency or consumer protection agency

4) Contact the CIC office which is responsible for processing your application

5) Contact the Canada Border Services Agency

For more information on how to file a complaint and potential consequences to you the consumer,  you can visit the following websites:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/representative/complaints.asp

http://iccrc-crcic.ca/AboutUs/public/complaintsDiscipline.cfm

Furthermore, if you know of someone who is charging a fee for Canadian immigration services illegally (an unauthorized representative), you can report them directly to the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council at:

http://iccrc-crcic.ca/ALERT.cfm

Lastly, it is important to remember that you do not have to use a paid representative, but if you do make sure you protect yourself.