Gov. Agencies Now Permitted to Share Information on Immigration Rep Misconduct

Statue of Justicia in Ottawa Canada. New legal provisions in Bill C-35 allow government agencies to share information on professional misconduct by immigration representatives with governing bodies that license and regulate them.

Rules in place since April 10th give Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) the legal authority to share information on professional misconduct by immigration representatives with governing bodies.

CIC regularly receives complaints and tips from the public about unethical or illegal conduct by immigration representatives, but until the April 10th operation bulletin that implemented the information-sharing provisions of Bill C-35, has not had the authority to share that information with governing bodies like the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC), which licenses and regulates immigration consultants.

Examples of the type of conduct that government agencies can now share allegations or evidence of are:

  • Failing to provide services promised to a client in an agreement
  • Making guarantees that the representative not capable of ensuring
  • Misrepresenting Canada’s immigration processes and requirements
  • Counselling clients to provide false information

To reduce the possibility of being defrauded, CIC recommends that people who are looking to pay for immigration representation ensure that their representative is licensed in their provincial or federal jurisdiction. A list of all immigration consultants licensed by the ICCRC to provide paid immigration consultation in Canada is available on their website.

 

Hundreds of Canadian Immigration Consultants will meet in Mississauga

Six hundred immigration consultants are registered to gather at the First General Meeting (FGM) for members of the Canada Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC) in Mississauga on Friday. This will be the largest gathering of Canadian immigration consultants in history.

The ICCRC is Canada’s immigration consulting regulatory body, and replaced the previous self-regulatory body of the immigration industry, the CSIC, last year.

The regulatory body has new investigative powers granted to it by Bill C-35, an Act to Amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which came into law on June 30, 2011. This legislation gives the federal government new abilities to crack down on unlicensed immigration consultants and otherwise illegal immigration consulting activities.

The ICCRC, unlike the old regulatory body, is also directly answerable to the Immigration Minister of Canada, Jason Kenney.

The keynote address for Friday’s FGM will be given by Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Deputy Minister, Neil Yeates.