Question Period Note: Immigration and Citizenship Consultants

Measures taken to improve and strengthen the governance and regulation of immigration and citizenship consultants.

• IRCC is committed to upholding the integrity of Canada’s immigration programs and protecting our systems against fraud and misrepresentation.
• IRCC established the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants in 2021 to regulate immigration and citizenship consultants and protect the public. IRCC is introducing regulations to further define the structure and operations of the College.
• IRCC is also introducing through regulation an administrative penalties and consequences regime to penalize paid representatives who break the law when advising on immigration or citizenship applications.

• In 2019, the Government of Canada announced a new governance regime for immigration and citizenship consultants. This included the coming into force of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants Act (the College Act) in 2020 and the establishment of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (the College) in 2021.

• The College Act provides the College the statutory framework required to license and govern immigration and citizenship consultants practising in Canada and abroad. The College regulates immigration and citizenship consultants in the public interest and protects the public. It has new and strengthened tools to investigate professional misconduct and discipline its licensees, including the ability to
o enter the premises of a consultant for the purpose of gathering information to support an investigation when it suspects wrongdoing,
o summon and compel witnesses to appear and testify before the Discipline Committee,
o suspend a consultant as a provisional measure prior to a finding of professional misconduct or incompetence—in situations where protection of the public is at risk; and
o suspend and revoke licences to practise as part of disciplinary decisions.

• With regard to unauthorized practitioners, the College has the power to request court injunctions against individuals who are not licensees of the College. It has taken unprecedented action by shutting down over 3,000 social media pages operated by unauthorized practitioners. The College also launched a Fraud Prevention Month campaign to encourage the use of its Public Register to verify whether an immigration and citizenship consultant is licensed.
• IRCC maintains strong oversight over the College to ensure public protection. As part of this oversight, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (the Minister) established the Code of Professional Conduct for licensees. The Minister also sets the composition of the College’s board of directors (the Board) and can appoint the majority of directors. The Minister also designates a civil servant observer at the meetings of the Board.

• The College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants Regulations build on the foundation of the College Act. The new regulations would set out the detailed requirements necessary to fully operationalize the intent of the College Act, improving the overall effectiveness of the governance framework.

• Next steps in the implementation of the governance regime for immigration and citizenship consultants include
o the coming into force of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants Regulations to support the authorities of the College, and
o the coming into force of the Regulations Amending the Citizenship Regulations (Administrative Penalties and Consequences) and the Regulations Amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (Administrative Penalties and Consequences) for an administrative penalties and consequences regime administered by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (independent of the College).

• Both sets of regulations are anticipated to come into force in 2025.

• As part of the initiative to improve the regulatory regime for immigration and citizenship consultants, Canada is also investing $48.3M over four years and $9.8M ongoing for both Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency.

• These investments include resources for the Department to improve its ability to conduct investigations and to enable the Department to issue new administrative penalties, as well as more resources for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to pursue investigations of complex criminal cases related to immigration and citizenship consultants.

• The CBSA and RCMP have authority to enforce the criminal provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Citizenship Act, respectively, which include representation-related offences such as unauthorized representation and counselling misrepresentation. IRCC continues to support enforcement partners in these efforts.

• The College has raised the standards of the profession through actions such as the development of a mandatory mentoring program and the creation of a new class of licence for consultants who represent clients at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
• The goal of these changes is to deter those who commit fraud and provide unauthorized advice and representation. In 2024, we investigated an average of over 9,000 cases of suspected immigration fraud every month. This led to thousands of applications being refused every month, and tens of thousands of bad faith actors being banned from entering Canada.
• We introduced tougher penalties, including fines of up to $1.5 million, for dishonest immigration representatives who help their clients with fraudulent applications.