The five-minute check
Ask the firm for the licence number of the individual who will handle your file, then search it on the destination regulator's own website. Not a screenshot, not a PDF certificate, not a logo on a homepage — the regulator's live register.
For Canada that is the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Search by College ID and read two columns: Status and Entitled to Practise. Only Active or Active – Practice Restricted, together with an Entitled to Practise value of Yes, means the person may legally advise you for a fee.
For Australia it is the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority. Search the MARN and check the agent appears with a current registration and the business name you were given.
What the register will not tell you
A register confirms a person is licensed. It does not confirm the advice you were given is sound, that the fee is reasonable, or that the firm will still be answering the phone in eighteen months. Ask additionally for a written service agreement, a fee schedule that separates government charges from professional fees, and the name of the person who will actually be handling the file rather than the person who sold it to you.
Be wary of anyone who guarantees an outcome. No consultant, anywhere, can guarantee a visa — the decision belongs to the destination country's immigration authority, and promising otherwise is itself a breach of the Canadian regulator's conduct rules.
Our own numbers, and where to check them
XIPHIAS Immigration's Canadian practice is delivered under RCIC licence R516194, listed on the CICC public register against XIPHIAS Immigration Pvt Ltd. Australian matters run under MARA registration 1680615. The Managing Director, Varun Singh, is a Fellow of the Investment Migration Council.
Each of those is a link on this page to the issuing body's own database, not to a page we control. XIPHIAS provides immigration consulting and documentation support; it is not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice.
Common questions
- Is ICCRC the same as CICC?
- It is the same regulator under a new name. ICCRC was continued as the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants on 23 November 2021. A firm whose website still says 'ICCRC registered' has not updated its compliance copy in several years, which tells you something in itself.
- Can a company hold an RCIC licence?
- No. The College licenses individuals, not companies. A firm can employ or work with a licensed RCIC, and the register shows the company each licensee is associated with — which is exactly how you confirm the connection is real.
- What if the consultant says they work with a registered agent abroad?
- The regulator's own guidance is to contact that agent directly using the contact details shown on the public register, and to make sure your service agreement is signed with the licensed person.
- Does a licence mean my visa is more likely to be approved?
- It means your representative is accountable to a regulator and may legally act for you. It does not change the published criteria your application is judged against. Anyone suggesting otherwise is selling something.
Related
- Immigration consultants in BangaloreSeventeen years of files, six offices, and a licence number you can look up before you pay anyone a rupee.
- RCIC-registered Canadian immigration consulting, from BangaloreA Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant is licensed by the Canadian government's regulator — wherever in the world they sit.