This Canadian Startup is Making Immigration Scams a Thing of the Past

Immigration scams are a significant cause for concern in Canada’s immigration landscape. According to ImmiSearch, over 19% of Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants had their identities stolen by fraudulent individuals posing as legitimate immigration consultants. In Canada, only Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCIC) in good standing of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council, lawyers and paralegals who are in good standing of a Canadian provincial or territorial law society, and notaries who are in good standing of the Chambre des notaires du Quebec are authorized to provide immigration services for a fee. Unfortunately, these professions can only be regulated inside of Canada and the number of unauthorized representatives who operate overseas is growing out of control.

Democratizing Canadian immigration

ImmiSearch, a Burnaby-based startup receiving support from the entrepreneurship@UBC accelerator program, is on a mission to end immigration scams. It is a trusted transparent marketplace for qualified immigrants to access and connect with legitimate immigration and settlement services, all in one place.

“The unfortunate thing about current efforts to prevent immigration scams tends to be more reactive than proactive”, said Kevin Lee, CEO of ImmiSearch. ImmiSearch democratizes immigration services and targets potential immigrants at the beginning stages of their immigration journey taking a fully proactive approach. “On ImmiSearch’s platform, you will only find regulated Canadian immigration consultants who are authorized by the government of Canada to represent you. We guarantee it. We also make finding the perfect consultant as simple as ever by enabling search based on language, immigration program specializations, location, reviews, and more”.

Three simple steps

Search

ImmiSearch utilizes filters to help you find the perfect immigration consultant for your case. First, you enter what you are moving to Canada for.

Browse

Once you enter your search conditions, you are given a list of licensed immigration consultants you can choose from. You can narrow down the list even further based on filters such as location, language, reviews, and more.

Book

Finally, once you find the perfect immigration consultant you would like to work with, you can send them a message to get to know them a little better or book them instantly for an initial consultation. Voila! 3 simple steps and you’re already on your way to calling Canada your new home.

Maximizing chances of success

Immigration is a long and difficult process with over 80 different immigration programs you may fall under. Based on an Access to Information and Privacy request submitted by ImmiSearch to the government, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had an average application rejection rate of 29% between Apr 2019 through Mar 2020. That’s 1.1 million people that were rejected! What’s unfortunate is that many of these immigrants are qualified and are often approved on their subsequent applications. However, this wastes valuable time and money for both Canada and the immigrants.

ImmiSearch’s future development plans are to create immigration technology that simplifies the immigration process to maximize the chances of application approvals in less time. This will allow consultants to help a larger volume of immigrants at a lower price and Immigrants will have an affordable way to get approved on their first application.

ImmiSearch’s Team

ImmiSearch was started by immigrants, for immigrants. “We were very intentional in building our team. We believe diversity and inclusiveness is a strength and will continue to promote our values. We are committed to eliminating racial and gender bias in our interview process. We are a diverse team, consisting of 50% females and 50% males, coming from South Korea, Hong Kong, India, Nigeria, Brazil, and the Philippines.”

Immigration is complex and daunting, to say the least. However, ImmiSearch is making it safe and simple for immigrants one connection at a time. It has already helped hundreds of immigrants find the perfect licensed immigration consultant and is quickly expanding into other Canadian provinces. See what real customers are saying about ImmiSearch:

Rajagokul Stalin

“First, I’d like to have a HUGE shoutout to ImmiSearch for having a platform where you get to hire Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants without having a second thought, I MEAN IT!I had my first 20-minute free consultation with Cally Fung last week for reviewing my SOP for Study Permit for a Post Graduate Program in Toronto. Have to say it was such an INCREDIBLE experience!! Not only that she went through my SOP paragraph by paragraph, but also provide me with invaluable insights for each section in a clear and precise way to make it more immigration officer friendly.”

If you’re interested in learning more about ImmiSearch, visit us at https://ImmiSearch.ca.