Immigration consultant licence (RCIC)

Immigration consulting is a regulated activity. A buyer of a consulting firm meets this licence when deciding who may handle the firm’s client files after closing. The rule is federal, and the College, which is a regulator, keeps a public register of licensees.

What the Act says

Subsection 91(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act says that, subject to the rest of section 91, no person may knowingly, directly or indirectly, represent or advise a person for consideration, or offer to, in connection with an expression of interest under subsection 10.1(3) or a proceeding or application under the Act. Under subsection 91(2), a person does not contravene that rule if they are a lawyer or Quebec notary in good standing, another member in good standing of a provincial law society or the Chambre des notaires du Québec, or a member in good standing of the College. Subsections 91(3) and 91(4) set other exceptions, for supervised students-at-law and for entities acting under an agreement with the federal government. Subsection 91(7.1) adds that Quebec’s Québec Immigration Act also applies to a College member who acts in Quebec.

What to check or ask

• Which people at the firm are licensed, and whether each is “active” on the College’s public search register, which the College says clients can use to verify a consultant.
• Whether the buyer, or someone the buyer will employ, will be licensed before taking over any client file.
• How open files would be handled between signing and closing; the answer on buying a practice before being licensed sets out the general question.