Foreign nationals defrauded by unscrupulous immigration consultants, including by being sold fake jobs in Canada, will be able to access compensation, under forthcoming regulations from the immigration department.
Ottawa earlier this month issued an order to bring in regulations establishing a fund to compensate clients found to have been ripped off by licensed immigration consultants.
The College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants, which would run the fund, regulates and licenses immigration consultants, practising both in Canada and abroad.
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Foreign nationals can currently complain to the college, which adjudicates on such matters and can fine consultants, but the regulations would create a compensation fund for exploited clients.
The development follows concerns that some licensed consultants have been running scams, including selling jobs to migrants that do not exist, or charging foreign nationals tens of thousands of dollars to obtain a job available to a foreign national in Canada.
Other licensed immigration consultants have botched applications for their clients, or submitted false paperwork which led their clients being denied the right to work or stay in Canada, and refused to refund their fees.
In one case under investigation by the college, a consultant allegedly convinced their client there was a problem with their immigration status and offered a solution: to pay a large retainer for a specialized lawyer. The consultant allegedly told their client to deposit the retainer into their personal account and impersonated the specialized lawyer over the phone.
An analysis by the government of the potential impact of establishing a compensation fund predicts that it would lead to an increased number of complaints against consultants to the college, which has a discipline committee to adjudicate on complaints.
Spokesperson Stef Lach, said “the college looks forward to the regulations taking effect on July 15, 2026, and is preparing the operational and governance structures to administer them.”
He said the proposed regulations would give the college a framework to “effectively govern immigration and citizenship consultants licensed by the college and protect the public, including by ensuring compliance with the standards of professional conduct and competence that must be met by licensees of the college.”
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He said they would also help ensure people “have access to quality immigration and citizenship advice and representation, with adequate recourse when licensees do not meet these standards.”
The compensation would be funded by fines and also by the fees paid by licensed consultants to the college.
The college currently has the authority to impose fines on consultants found to have breached the rules, and to enforce them through court action.
The plans to establish a compensation fund follows criticism by MPs of the conduct of some immigration consultants, including those who have advised international students facing deportation to apply for asylum in order to remain here.
The college has suspended or revoked a number of its members’ licenses to practice after investigations upheld complaints.
But Toronto immigration lawyer Ravi Jain said the establishment of a compensation fund is a “band-aid solution” to the problem of wrongdoing and bad advice being given by some immigration consultants.
He said “some immigration consultants strive to be diligent,” but the public would be best served if immigration consultants were required to work with lawyers.
“They are practising law and even some of the good ones don’t know what they don’t know and the client is left holding the bag,” he said.