How to Vet Anyone Who Offers to Help You Migrate

Checking that an immigration consultant is legitimate comes down to six questions, and you can ask all six in one conversation before any money moves. Are you registered, and where can I verify the number myself? Will your name appear on my application as my representative? What exactly am I buying, in writing, with each deliverable named? What is not included? What happens if I am refused, and who pays for what afterwards? Who owns my documents once I hand them over, and how do I get the originals back?

An honest provider answers all six plainly, in writing, and does not treat the questions as an insult. A dishonest one deflects, offers reassurance in place of a number, or says that asking shows a lack of trust. The deflection is the signal. You do not need to know immigration law to run this test, because it measures behaviour and paperwork.

This page is general information. A registered migration agent or an immigration lawyer should confirm how it applies to your own case, and rules, registers and penalties change, so check the current version published by the authority named.

Who this applies to

The six questions work on anyone who takes money in connection with your move: migration agents and consultants, immigration lawyers, recruitment agencies, education agents recruiting for colleges abroad, document services, and credential assessment intermediaries. They also apply to people who do not call themselves any of those things: a relative's friend who "knows someone at the embassy", a group administrator who offers to handle your file privately, a fixer in a Gulf state, a company describing itself as a "travel and documentation" business. Money changing hands for a migration outcome is the trigger.

The questions apply to NextMigrate too, and our own answers to all six are set out further down this page.

Question one: are you registered, and where can I verify the number?

Several countries restrict who may give immigration advice for a fee. The bodies operating registers at the time of writing include the Office of the MARA in Australia, the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants in Canada, the Immigration Advice Authority in the United Kingdom, previously the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, and the Immigration Advisers Authority in New Zealand. Lawyers are regulated separately by their bar association or law society. Overseas recruitment is licensed in origin countries by bodies such as the Department of Migrant Workers in the Philippines and through India's eMigrate system, and education agents by the destination's sponsor or provider register. Check the current register on the authority's own website, because names, scopes and requirements change.

An honest provider gives you the number, the exact name the registration is held under, and the register to search, and expects you to search it. A screenshot, a PDF, a photograph of a wall plaque and a number quoted in a message are worth nothing until you have typed it into the official register yourself.

Watch for three evasions. Scope substitution offers a company registration or a trade association logo in place of an immigration registration. Borrowed registration puts one registered person's number over an office of unregistered staff who handle your file. Jurisdiction shifting says registration does not apply because the firm sits in a country that does not regulate advice, which can be true and still leaves you with no regulator to complain to. Our guide on how to check a migration agent is licensed walks through each register search step by step.

Question two: will your name appear on my application?

Application forms in most systems contain a section naming the representative who prepared or submitted the application, and whether that section is completed is a hard test that cannot be talked around. An adviser willing to be named accepts accountability for the file. An adviser who leaves it blank, or asks you to submit "as if you did it yourself", has arranged things so that only you carry the consequences of what the file contains.

Ask it in this form: will your name and registration number go in the representative section, and will I see the completed form before it is submitted? Answers worth a second look include "it is faster without a representative", "officers treat self-filed applications better", and "our lawyer signs it, you will not meet him". A provider who does not file applications should say so directly and tell you who will. The pattern of an adviser who does the work and never appears in the paperwork is covered in ghost consultants and unregistered agents, which is the page to read if someone has offered to prepare your forms while you press submit.

Question three: what exactly am I buying?

Ask for the deliverables as a list, each one a thing you can point at afterwards. A written eligibility assessment. A comparison of named visa routes. A document checklist for your occupation and destination. A named number of hours of advice. Preparation and lodgement of a specific application. Each item should carry a fee, stated separately from government charges, test fees, assessment body fees, translation and medical costs. Vagueness is where money disappears, because a service that was never described cannot be shown to have been delivered.

Two answers matter more than the rest. The first is an outcome sold as a deliverable, such as "you are paying for the visa". Nobody sells a visa, because governments decide those. The second is a job offer bundled into the fee. That arrangement is examined in visa farms and sponsorship for sale, the page to read if someone has offered to find you a sponsor as part of the package. Fees have a normal shape, staged against milestones, and migration consultant fees: what is reasonable sets out how legitimate pricing is structured.

Question four: what is not included?

This question separates careful providers from every other kind, and it is the one people forget to ask. A provider who knows their own service lists the exclusions immediately: we do not sit your language test, obtain your police certificates, pay government fees, conduct your skills assessment or guarantee processing times, and we cannot advise on tax or on your criminal record.

Someone who says "we handle everything" has either not thought about it or intends you to discover the gaps after paying. Everything is a large claim in a process involving foreign governments, medical panels, testing organisations, universities, translators and police forces in every country you have lived in.

Push once. Ask what has gone wrong for previous clients at the edges of the service. A provider with real files describes a delayed police certificate, a credential assessment that came back low, a sponsor who withdrew.

Exclusions raise a further question: whether you needed a paid provider at all. Many straightforward cases are filed by the applicant alone, and do I need a migration agent sets out which cases usually do. Where a case involves a refusal history, a criminal matter or an appeal, the right professional is often a lawyer, and when a case calls for an immigration lawyer explains the line between the two.

Question five: what happens if I am refused?

Refusals are ordinary, and the way a provider talks about them tells you how they think about risk. Ask four things. What is your refund policy on a refusal, in writing. Is a reapplication or an appeal included, or charged again. Who drafts the response to a request for further information. What happens to my file and my documents if I stop.

The dangerous answer is a guarantee. A promised outcome, or a claim that the provider has never had a case refused, should end the conversation. Approval is decided by a government officer applying published criteria to your evidence, and no provider controls that. A guarantee is either a lie about the process or a signal that the provider intends to manufacture the evidence, which brings a worse problem than refusal.

That worse problem is a misrepresentation finding, a separate outcome from a plain refusal, with consequences that follow you into other applications. The difference is set out in misrepresentation finding versus plain refusal, and if a finding has already been made, the options are covered in misrepresentation bans and what you can do. Ban lengths are set by each destination country's immigration authority and change, so verify the current position on that authority's site and take legal advice.

Question six: who owns my documents?

Your passport, degree certificate, transcripts, birth and marriage certificates, bank statements and police certificates are yours. Ask who holds the originals, where they are stored, how quickly you get them back, whether the provider retains copies afterwards, and what happens to your file if you stop paying.

The answer reveals leverage. Providers who hold original documents hold you, and retention is one of the common ways a person who wants to walk away discovers they cannot. Passports should stay with you except for the short periods an application or an embassy appointment requires, and any arrangement where a provider keeps your passport indefinitely for "safekeeping" is one to refuse.

Ask a second question about login credentials. Some systems require an online account in your name, and an adviser who withholds the password removes your ability to see what has been submitted. You are responsible for the contents of your application, so you need to be able to read it. Document control used to keep a worker in place after arrival crosses into a different category of harm, and a provider who wants your originals held indefinitely should be refused before that point is reached.

How to check: signals and what they mean

What it costs you

Money is the visible cost and usually the smallest one. Time is lost in blocks that cannot be recovered: language test scores expire, police certificates and medicals have validity windows, and points based systems award fewer points as you age, so a year spent with an adviser who never filed anything can reduce your score permanently.

The record cost is more serious. If false information reaches an immigration authority in your name, the consequence attaches to you, whoever typed it. The adviser is not on the form, which is why question two matters.

Debt is the third. Fees funded by a loan or a family contribution create pressure to keep paying into a process that is already failing, because stopping means admitting the earlier money is gone. That pressure is why the six questions belong at the start, before any deposit, when walking away still costs nothing.

When it is already too late

Collect the evidence first: contracts, receipts, transfer references, full message threads, the names and numbers used, and any version of the application you can retrieve. Then contact your bank the same day if the payment is recent, because recall windows are short, and your bank can tell you the deadline that applies to the payment method you used.

Report to the immigration regulator if the person claimed to be registered, to the police or cybercrime unit in your own country, and to the licensing body for overseas recruitment if a job was involved. If an application was submitted in your name without your knowledge, take legal advice before writing to the immigration authority, because how you frame that disclosure matters. Outcomes vary widely. The practical steps are set out in an agent took my money: what you can actually do.

Be careful about the second approach that often follows the first: people who have lost money are frequently contacted by someone offering to recover it for an advance fee. Our guide to avoiding immigration scams covers that pattern and several others.

Common mistakes

Accepting a screenshot as verification. Certificates and PDFs are trivially copied. Only a search you performed yourself on the regulator's own site counts.

Asking the six questions and then ignoring the answers. Most people who lose money noticed something early and explained it away, because the alternative was starting the search again.

Letting speed override checking. Intake deadlines, closing quotas and rule changes next month are the standard urgency scripts. Real deadlines are published on government websites where you can read them yourself.

Checking the agent and not the employer or the college. The adviser can be clean while the job or the course is not. Verify the employer separately using how to check an overseas employer actually exists, and check the destination's published sponsor register for the company named on your offer.

Where to go deeper in this cluster

If part of your payment secures a job offer abroad, read visa farms and sponsorship for sale. If you hold an offer letter and cannot confirm the company is real, how to check an overseas employer actually exists is the verification walkthrough. If an adviser will not be named on your forms, ghost consultants and unregistered agents explains what that leaves you holding. If a centre has offered to arrange a language score, fake test centres and bought language scores sets out how those results are detected. If you have already paid someone and nothing has happened, an agent took my money: what you can actually do covers reporting and recovery.

If you are being sold a qualification that promises to make you eligible, diploma mills: how to tell a real qualification from a sold one shows how to check an institution. If you hold a genuine degree and want to know whether the destination will accept it, is your degree recognised and how credential assessment works is the practical guide. If the offer is a study place that is really a visa route, bogus colleges: student visas that lead nowhere covers what happens when a college licence is revoked. If someone has offered to supply a degree certificate or an experience letter you did not earn, buying a degree or experience letter: what it costs later sets out the consequences that arrive years later.

For a picture of what a properly run service looks like from the inside, read what an honest migration service does and what it cannot. If you are close to paying someone and want a fast final check, twelve red flags to check before you pay any migration fee is the short version of this page.

Now apply the checklist to NextMigrate

A page about vetting providers is worth nothing if the provider who wrote it will not answer its own questions.

Are we registered? Put that question to us in the form this article gives you, ask for the name to search and the register to search it in, and check the answer yourself before any money moves. What the service is, plainly: NextMigrate provides independent planning and guidance. We do not file, lodge or submit applications on your behalf, and we escalate to a licensed lawyer or a registered agent where your case needs one.

Will our name appear on your application? No. We do not file, lodge or submit applications on your behalf. Where your case needs a licensed professional to file it, we escalate to a licensed lawyer, and that person is the one who acts for you.

What exactly are you buying? A 60 minute one to one video call with a migration specialist matched to your target region, eligibility scoring for up to three countries, a visa pathway comparison, a personalised roadmap with realistic timelines, a document checklist for your occupation and target country, and a written summary emailed within 48 hours. It also includes access to a community of people going through the same process, planning tools, the arrival guide for your destination, and document templates. The price is $499, reduced from $999, booked with a $99 deposit.

What is not included? We do not lodge applications, sit your tests, obtain your police certificates, run your skills assessment, or pay government fees. We do not find you a job or a sponsor, and we do not sell job offers. We give no legal advice on inadmissibility, criminal history or a misrepresentation allegation, which is where escalation to a lawyer applies.

What happens if you are refused? Buying a roadmap does not improve the odds of any decision, and we guarantee no visa, no outcome, no job offer and no timeline. Governments decide applications. Planning helps you choose a route you qualify for and sequence the steps in a workable order, which is a different thing from influencing a decision.

Who owns your documents? You do. We take no custody of your passport or original certificates, and we hold no logins to any government account in your name.

Hold every provider you speak to against those same six answers, and take whichever is more honest about its limits.

What to do next

Put the six questions to whoever you are talking to, in one message, and ask for the answers in writing. Search the register yourself before you pay. Read the exclusions before the inclusions. Keep your originals. If any answer arrives as reassurance in place of a fact, treat that as the answer.

A NextMigrate roadmap is $499, reduced from $999, and starts with a $99 deposit. It includes a 60 minute call with a migration specialist matched to your target region, eligibility scoring for up to three countries, a personalised roadmap with realistic timelines, and a written summary within 48 hours. See pricing for what is and is not covered, or start with the free eligibility assessment to see where you stand. We provide independent planning and guidance, we do not file applications, and we escalate to a licensed lawyer when a case needs one.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I check an immigration consultant is legitimate?

Search the destination country's regulator register yourself, using the exact name the registration is held under, and confirm the status is current. The bodies operating registers at the time of writing include the Office of the MARA in Australia, the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants in Canada, the Immigration Advice Authority in the United Kingdom, and the Immigration Advisers Authority in New Zealand. Registers and scopes change, so use the authority's own website. Then ask the six questions on this page. Registration proves the person is permitted to advise; the six questions tell you whether the service being sold is real.

What if the consultant is in a country that does not regulate immigration advice?

That situation is common and it is not automatically dishonest, though it changes your position. If nobody licenses the adviser, there is no regulator to hear a complaint, so your only protections are the written contract, the payment method and the exclusions list. Ask whether they are regulated anywhere, and if the answer is no, ask what recourse you have if the service is not delivered. A provider who says plainly that they are unregulated gives you more to work with than one who implies a registration they do not hold.

Is it a bad sign if an adviser will not guarantee my visa?

Refusing to guarantee an outcome is the correct answer and a good sign. Immigration decisions are made by government officers applying published criteria to your evidence, so no adviser controls them. A guarantee of approval means the provider is either misdescribing what they do or planning to strengthen your case with untrue material, which risks a misrepresentation finding against your name.

What is the single fastest check if I only have five minutes?

Search the register. Type the person's name and number into the destination country's regulator site and see whether an active entry comes back in that exact name. If nothing comes back, or the entry is expired, or the name does not match, stop and ask for an explanation. The second fastest check is asking whether their name goes on your application form, because that answer is short and difficult to fake.

Does using a paid provider improve my chances of approval?

Paying a provider does not change the criteria a government officer applies to your case. Good help reduces avoidable errors, sequences the steps so nothing expires while you wait, and identifies early whether you are eligible at all. Where a case is legally complex, a registered agent or an immigration lawyer adds real value in how the case is argued and documented. Any provider claiming that hiring them raises your odds of a decision is describing something they cannot deliver.

Related guides

• How to Check a Migration Agent Is Licensed
• When a Case Calls for an Immigration Lawyer
• Migration Consultant Fees: What Is Reasonable
• How to Avoid Immigration Scams