How to Choose an Immigration Representative, and What a Licence Will Not Tell You
Mary Nirenberg describes it as the drive home from the doctor's office. You arrive knowing what the issue is. You have read everything there is to read about it. Then, the appointment moves at its own pace. You leave overwhelmed, thinking about all the things you should've asked.
That is where the third episode of Kanset Talks opens, with Maria Guerts proposing a fix: hand people a checklist of questions to bring to an immigration consultation. Mary will not have it. A general checklist cannot work, she argues, because the questions that matter depend entirely on the case, and the person who knows which ones matter is the one on the other side of the desk. They spend the next half hour working out what a client can do instead, and close on a simple idea: there is no reason to climb through a window when there is an open door.
Kanset Talks, episode 3. Maria Guerts and Mary Nirenberg on how to choose an immigration representative in Canada.
What comes out of the conversation is not a list of questions, but a guide to choosing your immigration partner. You cannot settle that decision on credentials alone. Lawyers and immigration consultants are both regulated professionals, but they do not have identical scopes of practice, and each brings different skills and experience to different types of matters. The question is not which profession is better. The question is which professional, and which team, is the right fit for your particular situation. And sometimes, the right answer may be a lawyer; sometimes, a consultant; and sometimes, a team that knows when to bring the other into the picture.
You also cannot settle it on price, because the cheapest quote is often the one that has disclosed the least. What is left is narrower and far more useful: integrity, chemistry, what the person promises you, what they tell you it will cost, and whether they will ever send you to someone else.
Start with the one thing you can actually check
Almost everything about choosing an immigration representative is judgment. One part is not. Licence status is a matter of public record, and confirming it takes about two minutes.
Anyone you pay to advise you on a Canadian immigration or citizenship application has to be authorized. There are three kinds. An immigration or citizenship consultant who is a member in good standing of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. A lawyer or notary in good standing with a provincial or territorial law society, or with the Chambre des notaires du Québec. Or, in Ontario only, a paralegal licensed by the Law Society of Ontario.
The word doing the work there is "paid," and it is broader than it sounds. If you give a representative money, IRCC says, or compensate them in any other way in exchange for their services, they count as paid and must be authorized. Use someone who is not, and IRCC may return your application or refuse it. The consequence lands on you, not on them.
Checking is not hard. The College keeps a public register where you can confirm that a person is a licensee, that they are in good standing, and whether they have been subject to disciplinary action. Most law societies publish the same for their members. Do it before the first meeting, not after the retainer.
Should you hire an immigration lawyer or a consultant?
This is the question clients are often shy to ask, but are definitely curious to know. The episode's answer is that there isn't one answer.
"They want to know, why should I choose you as opposed to a lawyer," Maria says. "My answer is always that there is no answer." The choice, as she frames it, is not between two categories of professionals. It is between particular teams. "Choose the team that you're most comfortable with. Choose the team that you trust."
Mary then does something most firms selling consulting services would not. She refuses to claim a consultant substitutes for a lawyer. "There are things that consultants are not licensed to do," she says, and names them plainly: a case that has to go further, to court, to a writ of mandamus application, or a refugee claim. Kanset works with lawyers for those, and stays involved when one is brought in.
Then she says it outright:
Never ever will I or any of my mates say you don't need a lawyer, we're just as good. I think it's unprofessional and it's simply not true.
That is the first real test, and it is worth more than any answer to the lawyer-or-consultant question itself. Ask the person in front of you what they are not licensed to do, and what happens to your case if it goes somewhere they cannot follow. Someone who works honestly within their scope should be able to answer that question without hesitation. And someone who tells you that you will never need anyone else has told you something useful about how they view their own role.
What will this cost, beyond the fee you were quoted?
The second test is money, because this is where vagueness can become expensive.
A service agreement should account for more than one number. Maria's description of what Kanset sets out is a reasonable benchmark to hold anyone to: the total fee, the work that fee covers, the fact that it is the only professional fee, the payment schedule, and the government fees you should expect during the process. Application fees are set and collected by the government, and IRCC publishes how they are paid separately from anything you pay a representative.
Then there is the category people forget, which is why Maria says the question to ask out loud is whether there are any additional fees you should expect. The costs that sit outside both the professional fee and the application fee are real:
Translation. Supporting documents must be in English or French. If yours are not, the application needs the translation, an affidavit from the person who did it, and a certified photocopy of the original.
The medical exam. It has to be done by a panel physician, not your own doctor, and you pay the physician directly at the appointment.
Police certificates, from every country the application requires.
Temporary status. If permanent residence is the only thing you have retained someone for, keeping your status valid while it is processed can be a separate application with its own fee.
Mary's honesty about this is the part worth borrowing. Full disclosure, she says, sometimes backfires. The list is so long at the outset that clients do not retain it, and months later someone asks why their visitor record has to be extended while they are waiting for their work permit. The firm can point at the contract. Being right, she notes, does not make the client feel better.
Her fix is about timing rather than paperwork: contact the client before each stage, explain what is coming and what it costs, and refresh a memory nobody should be expected to have. Which gives you a question worth asking in the consultation. Not "what does it cost," but "when will you tell me what the next stage costs?"
Maria adds a warning about the moment of signing, and includes herself in it:
I know e-signature is so easy now, and I'm a victim of that myself. So whenever I hire a service and I get that agreement for e-signature, it's too easy to sign it. Ask questions before, and do review it.
The same test runs in the other direction. Mary is blunt that a client who opens with "this is such a simple, standard case, why do you charge for it" has raised a flag of their own. Her answer: you are not paying for the hours, but for the years of cumulative knowledge, professionalism, education, experience. A quote is not a price list, and the cheapest one in front of you may simply be the one that has told you the least.
Four answers that should end the meeting
Some answers are disqualifying. The episode names four. On the first two, the government has published the same position in its own words.
A guarantee of any kind. This is the moment the episode is built around, and it is Mary at her driest:
"Guarantee" is a bad word. I never myself use it. And when somebody asks me, can you guarantee me something, I say, well, I guarantee you death and taxes. But I definitely cannot guarantee you the results. I can promise you that you will receive the best service.
The government says it more flatly. No one can guarantee you a job or a visa to Canada or permanent residence. And using a representative at all, IRCC notes, will not draw special attention to your application and does not mean it will be approved. Service can be promised. Outcomes cannot.
Anyone who has people on the inside. Maria is categorical: "Nobody has people on the inside. Nobody gets those applications through "under the table" and can guarantee that an application will be approved." What is actually in a representative's control is the quality of what gets filed, and she is specific about what that means. Documents that are consistent. Submissions short enough to be read. No hundred citations of case law to an officer who knows the law, no copy-paste letters. "More is not better."
Anyone who calls your case easy. It belongs on this list because it is the one people mistake for good news, and because it usually arrives attached to a low quote.
Anyone who tells you "don't go there, come here". "We would never say that. Ever." The opposite behaviour is the tell worth looking for. Maria goes further and actively encourages clients to get a second opinion, on the theory that a firm confident in its own consultation has nothing to fear from one.
What a good consultation leaves you with
The last test is the most overlooked, and, in this episode, the one both partners return to.
After all is said and done, the client will obviously remember that they got a positive result. But what is even more important, they will remember the feeling that they left with. Did they feel safe? Did they feel that they were listened to? Did they feel important? Did they feel that they're being helped? Did they feel that we actually care about their journey?
Going back to the original notion of a list of questions to ask, Maria does add a few important pointers. For one, ask how many people will work on your case. Maria's answer is that ideally it's a consultant and an assistant, and she says it at the outset so nobody is surprised later. Whatever the number is, you should be advised of it before you sign, and you should know who your point of contact is. Mary's version of the same principle: a client should deal with one or two people, while knowing there is an entire team behind them.
Secondly, Kanset's practice is to send a summary letter after every consultation, so the client can look back at what was discussed, and so can the firm. A representative who puts nothing in writing is asking you to rely on your memory of a single meeting, often conducted in a language that is not your first. After all, immigration is, as the episode puts it, one of the most important changes in a person's life.
And notice, at the end, what the meeting actually did to you. Mary's line is the closest thing the episode has to a rule: "If you leave the consultation with a feeling of relief and a feeling of security, then we are your team." Relief is not the same as reassurance. You can be reassured by someone who told you what you wanted to hear. Relief is what happens when somebody finally describes your situation accurately, including the difficult parts, and you can see what the next step is.
What this means in practice
Choosing a representative is a difficult decision, and we know it.
Confirm the licence. Reiterate costs until you have the total fee, the schedule, the government fees and what is not covered, and ask when you will be warned about the next stage. Listen for guarantees, contacts "on the inside", a case described as easy, or a warning not to go anywhere else, and treat any of the four as the major red flags.
Then, check how you feel on the way out. Reassured is not the target. Clearer - is.
If you want to know what your own situation calls for, book a consultation with Kanset.
Official sources
The general information on this page comes from the Government of Canada and the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. To read the rules yourself:
Choosing a representative, including the paid and unpaid rule (canada.ca)
What language supporting documents must be in (IRCC Help Centre)
How immigration and citizenship application fees are paid (IRCC)
This article is general information only and is not legal advice. Immigration rules can change, and every case turns on its own facts.