The Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC) describes itself as “a national regulatory body that serves and protects the public by overseeing licensed immigration and citizenship consulting and international student advising professionals.”
In its first newsletter of 2018, published on 15 January, the ICCRC has included information reminding Canadian educational institutions that their education agents must be authorized representatives in order to proved immigration advice to prospective international students.
Here’s a screenshot of the relevant part of the newsletter (click here to access the full document).
The ICCRC has sent the information directly to Canadian educational institutions.
The reminder follows a long running Linkedin campaign by ICCRC member Earl Blaney, who has frequently claimed that many Canadian institutions turn a blind eye to the fact their education agents are also illegally providing immigration advice to international students.
His criticism has focussed in particular on ICEF’s Canada Course for Education Agents
ICEF rejects Mr Blaney’s allegations, and there have been some heated exchanges between the two parties.
At one point late last year ICEF got their lawyers involved:
In all of this there seems to be one point of agreement: education agents must be ‘authorised representatives if they want to provide migration/citizenship advice or representation to their clients.
Good education agent management is the key
The ICCRC advice is a reminder of the need for educational institutions to actively manage their education agent relationships.
Regular communication with education agents, agent training, and ongoing agent performance evaluation (including through surveying placed students), is the best way to manage the risk that one of your agents is not meeting your minimum standards.
If you need help with managing your education agents, we offer a complete solution that will:
- increase student enrolments through your agent channel
- save you a heap of time in undertaking day-to-day agent management tasks, and
- reduce the risks associated with working with education agents.
Educational institutions can implement the solution from just US$20 per institution per month.
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