In 2022, a friend called from Toronto. He had paid $7,800 to an immigration consultant who promised to handle his Express Entry application. Six months later, nothing had been filed. Emails went unanswered. The consultant’s office number was disconnected.
I checked the official RCIC registry. It took 30 seconds. The consultant wasn’t listed. He had never been licensed.
This wasn’t an isolated case. Over the next year, I spoke with more than 20 immigration consultants and lawyers across Canada and India. The pattern was consistent: information designed to create fear and urgency. Simple questions met with unnecessarily complex answers. Every conversation ended with a pitch for paid services.
The problem isn’t that good information doesn’t exist. Canada.ca publishes accurate details about every immigration program. The problem is that it’s written for lawyers. It assumes you already understand the system. It doesn’t explain the way an immigration aspirant in India, Pakistan, USA, Middle East, Nigeria, etc. actually needs to hear them.
Meanwhile, the consultants who dominate Google results aren’t always the most qualified. They’re the ones with the biggest marketing budgets. Many legitimate RCICs, the ones who actually do excellent work, have no online presence at all. They don’t reach the people who need them most.
I understand this personally. I immigrated to the USA in 2023. I remember the confusion, the conflicting advice, the hours spent trying to understand which documents I actually needed. I eventually helped my friend complete his Canada immigration without an RCIC. The final paperwork was handled by a licensed lawyer.
That experience became the foundation for Canada Immigrations.