I am a father in India and my daughter recently finished school and wants to study engineering abroad. She is applying to universities in Canada and the UK. I am proud of her ambition and I am ready to support her financially even though the fees for international students, especially for engineering, are very high.However we are having one major disagreement about the visa process.
I told her that if she wants to study abroad, she must use a visa agent. I am not comfortable with her applying by herself online like she wants to do. In India many families use agents because the process has a lot of paperwork and rules and one small mistake can create problems.
The reason I trust agents is because of a particular one who helped my nephew. In our area he is known as a topper agent with a very high success rate for student visas.
My nephew mainly wanted to go to Canada to work and settle there eventually, but he went through the student route. The agent helped him find a diploma program where he could study while also working part time as a student. The agent guided him with everything including admission, the visa application, accommodation, and advice about work, tax filing after reaching there. My nephew is now doing well there.
Because of that experience I feel it is safer to use someone who understands the system properly.
My daughter says she has researched everything herself and many students apply directly without agents. She feels agents are unnecessary and sometimes even risky. One of her concerns is that if she gives all her personal documents and information to the agent, he could misuse it or use the details in other people’s applications. She says she is not comfortable sharing everything with a middleman like that.
But from my perspective the bigger risk is making a mistake in the visa application. I know someone personally who tried to apply for a UK visa themselves. It got rejected and they even accused him of fraud because of some issue in the documents. Later he had to go through an agent to apply for Canada and only then he succeeded.
For my daughter the stakes are even higher. Engineering tuition for international students is extremely expensive. If the visa is rejected because of some technical mistake then a lot of money and time could be wasted.
Because of that I told her clearly that if I am paying for her studies abroad, then she should use the agent we trust for the visa process.
She says I am being controlling and that I don’t trust her ability to handle a straightforward application. She feels I am forcing an unnecessary middleman and ignoring her concerns about privacy and misuse of information.
From my side I feel I am just trying to reduce risk and make sure everything goes smoothly.
So AITA for insisting she must use an agent instead of applying for the visa herself?
Just a word of warning: many so-called immigration agents in Canada are unreliable, untrustworthy, and working illegally. I know your nephew had a successful experience with the agent you want to use. However, the Canadian government recently has stiffened the rules concerning international students, and this includes cracking down on immigration agents with questionable credentials. Using an agent might actually work against your daughter.
NTA. If you’re paying and have personal knowledge of an agent that you trust, then use him. She can be a strong independent women once she leaves India and is on her own.
NAH. I just read through the visa application sites for the UK and Canada as a citizen of another country. I would feel comfortable applying myself with a lot of lead time, but there were several sections in each where I couldn’t tell if that document applied to me or not. If I had time to do it twice or wait for responses from the visa offices to my questions, I think like I could get my visa with some stress. I would also be very glad to have someone just guiding me through who actually knew the answers, so it wasn’t stressful.
On the flip side, I work for an American university, and we have a shocking number of “applicants” that are people using stolen, very specific details of real students in the hopes of getting student loan reimbursements from those “students.” I can only assume that similar visa or application agents are the origin of these scams, based on the info they have about the people purporting to be applying and enrolling.
Because you have a good experience with this particular agent, this seems like a good idea, but your daughter is also very smart to be wary of people who want to actually take her info and do the application on her behalf rather than guiding her through doing it directly.
YTA, your daughter is right. The visa admission process is government regulated and publicly available. Visa agents charge a fee, and are responsible for massive amounts of fraud. If your daughter is coming to Canada she is going to be responsible for her day to day living as well as large amounts of procedural work. Now is the time to start trusting her with it.
I guess just because there is so much fraud, here’s a list of Canadian universities and colleges
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/study-canada/study-permit/prepare/designated-learning-institutions-list.html
Thanks for this. It is also worth mentioning every private university or college in Canada is terrible regardless of whether or not they are ‘scams’.
Literally what I was going to say. Canada is cracking down on “agent” work. They want the student to know the process.
\> But from my perspective the bigger risk is making a mistake in the visa application. I know someone personally who tried to apply for a UK visa themselves. It got rejected and they even accused him of fraud because of some issue in the documents. Later he had to go through an agent to apply for Canada and only then he succeeded.
So… if she’s right and you make her do things your way, someone steals her information and/or commits fraud on her behalf, while charging you money for the privilege.
If you’re right and you do things her way, she makes a mistake and can still avail herself of hiring an agent afterwards.
YTA
Agents guarantee a placement at a university by forcing the applicant to apply to lower-ranked universities in remote places. No agent has any power to influence a visa. The agent only helps get the I-20 from the university, which is basically an acceptance letter. I came to the US as an international student. I talked to several agents and they basically told me that they will choose where I apply — I might get to choose 2 universities at most. I decided to do it myself. The process is not that complicated. The most important thing is to have a clear calendar and make sure your daughter times things properly (GRE, TOEFL, recommendation letters, personal essay, applications by the deadline for each university). Each university has slightly different deadlines but the process is more or less the same at more or less the same timeline.
By doing the applications herself, she stands a much better chance of going to a higher-ranked school.
She the adult in this right now. Let her go. You can always renogiate the money support.
NAH. You are trying to protect your child and your daughter believes she can do it herself. Thousands of people do so successfully so she’s not necessarily wrong.
For Canada for sure be really cautious here. You are only permitted to use authorized representatives to submit applications on behalf of foreign nationals. Using anyone else is not permitted and, especially recently, can hold severe consequences to the applicant. Keep in mind that representatives (either consultants or Canadian authorized lawyers), must be legally registered under their specific regulators.
In India there are a HUGE number of unauthorized “agents” that aren’t permitted to practice. If the Canadian government were to discover that an unauthorized agent were used, that can result in a misrepresentation ban for the applicant (your daughter).
Even if the individual helped your nephew, there could still be ongoing consequences. I feel there is reason to be concerned because the Canadian government flat out states that no one can guarantee the issuance of any visa or document, nor can they give that impression. Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (I am one of these and was previously an immigration officer), and Canadian lawyers know this and don’t promote themselves this way if they are scrupulous and ethical.
There is no requirement to use an immigration professional but you’re right that there can be consequences to errors being made.
The stakes for her are higher than I think either of you think. The success rates of study permits are greatly reduced in the last year and a bit and this affects India in particular because they are the largest source country for study permits. The eligibility requirements are very high.
For UK I believe it’s similar, but I don’t practice for UK so can’t be sure.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you that an authorized professional would be a good idea. But ensure that the person helping you is authorized and if not, then find someone who knows what they are doing *and* are authorized. Maybe allow your daughter a say in the decision as to who will assist in her application. That gives here some autonomy but still allows professional representation which makes you feel more comfortable.
The process is complicated. She is going to university & will likely have a person there helping that works with students to ensure they stay on track. But there is no harm in using an agent especially one that has good references. Also it’s possible using the agent can expedite the process. Your daughters concerns about privacy are valid but that info is going to be shared with multiple people even if she doesn’t use an agent
YTA. Daughter is right. Agents in India make a lot of money by scamming people and charging heaps of money for work that can be easily done by anyone. As someone who relocated her entire family overseas from India, you can easily do research and work out the requirements and apply for the visa yourself. It’s good that she wants to do it herself and be independent.