Are you seeking a permanent residence abroad? Or are you seeking a work or study permit abroad? Whatever the reason may be, there is some level of uncertainty and anxiety involved with the process of Immigration. If you find the process complex and confusing, you will need a good immigration consultant who can help you through the challenges by providing genuine guidance.

Immigration rules keep changing year to year and it is difficult to go through all of this without help. Now, coming to the most important question- How do you choose the best immigration consultant for the purpose? Here are 5 tips you need to consider to select the best Immigration Consultant:

1. Check the Basics

• Accreditation: Make sure you check whether the immigration consultant you are choosing is recognized by or registered with the local government bodies and the immigration regulatory body of the country you are moving to.
• Physical Office: It is always better to approach firms with a proper office setup and a dedicated client servicing team. Choosing an independent agent with no office setup is a huge risk to take as there is no credibility involved.
• Reputation: Doing a proper background check is the best way to judge the health of the consultancy and their reputation in the industry. The best way to review their credibility is through word of mouth reviews. To choose one of the best immigration consultants, seek reviews from actual people who’ve worked with the firm rather than plainly relying on written reviews and testimonials on their website.

2. Experience and Success Rate

Since immigration rules keep changing, you should always choose an immigration consultant with exhaustive knowledge and experience of serving their clients well. Such firms will be adept at handling unprecedented situations, which will save you a lot of time and money.

Most importantly, experience breeds trust. Once you’ve done the initial work of researching a well experienced and trustworthy consultant, the rest will follow smoothly.  A high success rate is the best indicator of the consultant’s knowledge, skills and experience in the field.

A ballpark figure to evaluate their experience would be at least 3 years of service in the industry and experience of having handled 1000 immigration cases related to the country you are moving to.

3. Interview the Consultant: Transparency is Key

Choosing to immigrate to another country may be a life altering decision to you. Therefore, selecting the best immigration consultant cannot be left to chance. It is imperative that you interview the consultant to evaluate important aspects such as their competency, affordability and how committed they are to helping you. A good immigration consultant will be willing to answer any question you have.

Some basic questions to ask the consultant should be based around their experience, their credentials, registration as per jurisdiction, your contract details and the pricing. Also, as discussed in step no.1, the consultant should not hesitate to give you possible references, when asked, to display their credibility. It’s important that the consultant understands what’s at stake and help you with genuine care and empathy.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a few consultants in mind or just one- Interview them! If you don’t understand them, you cannot work with them. The process of immigration takes time and requires that you work closely with the firm for several months, and this cannot happen without an understanding relationship between the two of you.

4. Avoid Consultants Who Make a Lot of Promises

• A good immigration consultant will make sure that your application is completely truthful. If he/she encourages you to lie, you should avoid working with them. Any leak now can get you in trouble later.

• A good immigration consultant will not hold on to your documents. Some scammers may try to keep your original documents with them and demand more money before they return those documents to you. Avoid putting yourself in such a situation. With the technology advancements that have happened recently, you don’t even have to visit their office or courier the documents to them as you can upload required color scanned copies online.

• Some firms may indicate a lower pricing on their website to attract clients and then raise the number once you decide to get involved with them. Being aware of this fact before you start negotiating, helps to resolve future conflicts.

Although most immigration consultants deliver valuable services to Visa and immigration applicants, there are some fraudsters who spoil the reputation of all. As discussed above, indulging with fake agents can have serious repercussions like monetary loss, loss of documents and, mostly importantly, loss of opportunity and eligibility for a particular immigration program.

5. Go through Their Website and Cancellation/Refund Policies

Does the firm have a well updated website? If they do, have they clearly mentioned all the details that concern you? A company website is the face of the company which explains to the client what they are all about. The best immigration consultants will have a neatly crafted and informative website.

The website should be able to brief you about the services offered, contact details, pricing structure and the firm’s registration documents. It will also acquaint you with any add-on services like job search or post landing services the immigration consultant has to offer.

Check the refund policy of the consultant

What will happen if your application gets rejected? Will your money be refunded? If yes, how much? And by when?

Unfortunately, success is not always guaranteed. If, for whatever reason, the Visa and immigration authorities reject your application, the consultant should refund the appropriate amount to your account based on their cancellation and refund policy. Therefore, it’s essential that you go through the terms and conditions of every firm you’ve shortlisted, to choose the most genuine ones.

When immigration is concerned, there are a lot of monetary transactions that happen between you and different authorities. Going through the firm’s refund policies, will help you understand what will be refunded and what not, so that you can make wiser decisions. The refund policy will specify the procedure for reimbursement and the stipulated time period to expect the same.

Also, pay special attention to conditions of contract wherein the refund of your amount will not be made by the immigration consultant. There have been many instances where the contract was terminated without any reimbursement due to breach of conditions of contract. Going through the cancellation and refund policy along with the terms of agreement is highly important as you don’t want to end up in an unfavorable position later on.

Why Kansas Overseas is the Best Visa and Immigration Consultant You Can Work With?

Kansas Overseas Careers is an ISO 9001-2008 immigration service company based in Hyderabad, with its operation centers spread all over India. We are a team of immigration experts, devoted to invest our knowledge, experience, and dynamism into creating new opportunities for professionals planning for an overseas career. We value professional approach, forward-thinking and take every step to aid our clients achieve their immigration goals smoothly.

Knowing that you may have many choices in the migration world, we’ll give you good reasons why you shall opt for us to be your immigration process consultant. Kindly visit our credentials section for all the details you need. We will be happy to answer all your questions and look forward to working with you.

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