As a lawyer who files negligence claims against immigration consultants, Eoin Logan hears lots of horror stories.
Temporary workers who have been tricked into paying thousands of dollars to secure a job – a practice that is illegal – only to find the job doesn’t exist. People fearing deportation after their immigration consultant falsified their applications. Temporary residents facing medical crises that have no health coverage because an immigration consultant failed to keep their work permits up to date.
The victims are often terrified about pushing back on the consultants, who sometimes threaten to get them deported.
Not everyone is a victim, though. Amongst the many foreign nationals seeking to immigrate to Canada, some knowingly conspire with immigration consultants, working together to submit fraudulent applications.
Earlier this month, the federal government announced new regulations to strengthen the oversight of immigration consultants. The measures, which will take effect on July 15, include a compensation fund for victims and increased penalties. These are well meaning gestures, but it’s too little, too late.
The current rules that the regulator, The College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants, operates under also look good on paper, but haven’t been enough to clean up the problems. With the federal government now on its third regulator, and still unable to properly oversee the industry, it’s time to give up on the current licensing system move to a new model.
“They’re not using the tools and powers at their disposal in order to actually regulate the profession,” says Mr. Logan. “I don’t think more tools are going to fix it.”
A new Canadian attends a citizenship ceremony in April. This month the federal government announced new regulations to strengthen the oversight of immigration consultants, which will take effect on July 15.Riley Smith/The Canadian Press
Enforcement that lacks teeth
Many immigration consultants do valuable work, helping foreign nationals living abroad and temporary workers in Canada get work and study permits, permanent residence and Canadian citizenship. While several decades ago, this work was almost exclusively done by immigration lawyers, consultants with strong connections in immigrant communities, often speaking the same language as their clients, have taken over a big chunk of the work.
The College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants has around 12,000 Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants, as well as almost 500 Regulated International Student Immigration Advisors. Under Canadian law, immigration consultants in Canada and abroad working on immigration applications to Canada are supposed to be licensed, but many operate in the shadows, and are dubbed “ghost consultants.”
In its last fiscal year, the college suspended just seven licenses and revoked eight more. That’s a small number considering the size of the problem. To get a sense of the scale, note that the college says the majority of its 1,375 open cases are attributable to 126 licensees (about 1 per cent of the licensees) who have been the subject of multiple complaints.
International students are among those who can be easily victimized as they navigate Canada’s complex immigration system.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The bad actors – some are unscrupulous, while others are just incompetent – tarnish the reputations of the good ones. Temporary workers, international students and refugee claimants can be easily victimized as they seek help navigating Canada’s complex and ever-changing immigration system. With 2.7 million temporary residents currently in the country, and the pathway to permanent residency narrowing due to reduced immigration targets, many are turning to consultants for help.
Many of the recent problems in immigration have been linked to licensed or unauthorized consultants. Some foreign nationals collaborate with them to apply for study permits even though they plan only to work in Canada. Consultants have also encouraged international students to file false refugee claims to extend their stays.
The federal government keeps changing its playbook to combat scams. The Immigration ministry shut down the Start-up Visa program for entrepreneurs after it got swamped by false applications, and it has temporarily removed points for job offers under its Express Entry system to prevent illegal job offer sales.
In 2003, Denis Coderre, then Liberal immigration minister, set up the first regulator to oversee consultants to try to prevent abuses.FRED CHARTRAND/The Canadian Press
Back in 2003, Liberal immigration minister Denis Coderre set up the first regulator to oversee consultants to try to prevent abuses. The Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants quickly became mired in internal strife and compensation disputes. Its replacement, the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council, was also widely seen as ineffective, and was replaced by the current College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants in 2021.
Some positive measures have been taken by the current regulator, such as standardizing education requirements. New licensees need a graduate diploma from Queen’s University or the Université de Montreal that takes three terms to complete and they must pass an entry exam, although previously licensed consultants, some with questionable training, were grandfathered in. The college has also had some success running fraud prevention campaigns abroad, and shutting down websites and social media pages advertising unauthorized consulting services.
The main concern is that the college’s enforcement lacks teeth. Most cases are settled through mediation, with the consultant encouraged to offer a refund in return for the investigation being dropped, although the most serious cases can lead to fines or license suspensions or revocations. Decisions in those cases can take years, and in the meantime, the consultants are still working with other clients.
Meanwhile, not enough is being done to shut down the operations of unregulated consultants. The college can apply for injunctions against them, but often there’s a lack of clarity about its role and that of the CBSA, RCMP and local and foreign law enforcement agencies.
Another big problem is that victims are reluctant to complain, fearing there could be negative immigration consequences. The college’s new compensation fund will give people more incentive to speak up. It will help in cases where the college is unable to collect money from a consultant, but the fund only covers “dishonest acts,” which can be difficult to prove, when compared with unwitting mistakes.
The immigration ministry estimates the average payment from the fund will be $4,652, which is far short of the losses typically faced by someone who loses a job or is deported due to bad advice. However, the fund is still a positive development that will compensate some victims and lead to more complaints against problematic consultants.
The new rules being rolled out in July also include other measures, such as increasing the maximum penalty from $10,000 to $50,000, and a clarification of investigative process rules, but it’s not a sea change in terms of how the sector is regulated.
Nearly 400 new Canadians take the oath of citizenship in a 2024 ceremony. Fraudulent immigration claims clog up the immigration system, slowing processing or resulting in less spots available for legitimate applicants.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Three strikes for the regulators
The impact of shady immigration consultants goes beyond the serious harm done to prospective immigrants. Fraudulent claims clog up the immigration system, slowing processing for legitimate applicants. A fair number of false claims do succeed, resulting in less spots available for honest people, and fraud closes entire pathways for legitimate applicants. There is also harm done to public confidence in the immigration system when scams are exploitation are allowed to flourish.
The provinces are losing faith in the federal regulator. Saskatchewan recently set up its own regulator for immigration consultants, using a proactive model that saw 52 sanctions issued last year. Alberta has its own plans to license consultants, and other provinces may follow.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Lena Metlege Diab welcomes new citizens in April, 2026. The new rules give the immigration ministry more power to take action if the college doesn’t fulfil its mandate.Riley Smith/The Canadian Press
The new rules give the immigration ministry more power to take action if the college doesn’t fulfill its mandate: the immigration minister can appoint someone to take over the board’s duties if it doesn’t meet its responsibilities. But instead of doubling down on a failed model, it’s well past time that Ottawa moved on to a new solution.
Given attempts for separate regulation haven’t worked, immigration consultants should be required to work under the supervision of lawyers. There should still be requirements for training, like paralegals, but they would operate under the rules of provincial and territorial law societies, which closely monitor lawyers. For example, lawyers are subject to spot audits to examine their financial records. This more proactive approach would help root out problems.
Law societies could create public blacklists of consultants, lawyers, employers and recruiters found guilty of fraud. They could also crack down aggressively on ghost consultants. While it might seem that putting lawyers in charge will drive up costs for clients, in reality, many of the independent consultants – in particular the shady ones – already charge their clients very high fees.
Instead of more half-measures, Ottawa needs to implement real reform. The immigration consultant sector is a stain on Canada’s reputation, and it needs to be cleaned up now.