The Must Know Guide: Keeping Yourself Away From Fraudulent Visa Consultants
There are thousands, if not millions, of applicants and students in India who aspire to study in reputed foreign institutes for their higher studies. These aspirants have a wide class of aspirations from engineering to management to law to medical sciences to very niche courses. Looking at the potential of this market there are way too many people becoming a visa consultant. Please note – just because someone calls himself a professional visa consultant, it does not make him a reliable. This is exactly where this guide will come into picture.
Many students, getting blinded by the improbable task of getting themselves into their dream universities, trust any Tom, Dick and Harry with their visa applications. At the first instance, it might get extremely difficult to filter a fraudulent visa consultant from the huge bunch of consultants. Hence, here are the red flags you need to watch out for before paying a dime to your visa consultant:
1. They over-promise. This is the first of all the possible red flags in the list. You can see such consultants from a mile away. They will have exorbitant ads which promise publically that they can help you get into Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale and every other university you can think of. It is true, some consultants have that level of professional experience but even they cannot guarantee you admit. If your prospective consultant is charging a huge amount of fee on the basis of such promises, please investigate further into their operations. Mostly, you will find more red flags soon.
2. They under-promise. On the other end of spectrum, there are the other kinds of consultants who cannot guarantee anything. While most of the professional consultants may not give you everything in writing in the first meeting, once they see the strength in your application, they will assure you. Yet, with these type of consultants you will find name of universities you can hardly Google or have never heard of, successful past clients in Uzbekistan or any other random country. When you find yourself surrounded by such unheard of places, it is a huge red flag.
3. Their commitments are ambiguous. This is a difficult one to catch. On the surface, they might look very professional in their conduct but their service may or may not be that effective either because they are fraudulent or because they are new to the business. In either state, you cannot risk your future on such ambiguities. Hence, when you find too many asterisks after their promises or way too ambiguous promises in themselves, it is time to dig deeper.
4. They are not showing any authorized licenses. This is the biggest red flag of all – even if your visa consultant does not exhibit any of the above conditions but has this one red flag, you need to get out of any communication with them immediately. Whenever dealing with visa consultants, ensure they have proper licensing and authorization, such as they are ICCRC approved consultant. When you have an ICCRC approved consultant you can be sure that they know what they are doing and the government has authorized them to give you the services you are paying for.
Many students, getting blinded by the improbable task of getting themselves into their dream universities, trust any Tom, Dick and Harry with their visa applications. At the first instance, it might get extremely difficult to filter a fraudulent visa consultant from the huge bunch of consultants. Hence, here are the red flags you need to watch out for before paying a dime to your visa consultant:
1. They over-promise. This is the first of all the possible red flags in the list. You can see such consultants from a mile away. They will have exorbitant ads which promise publically that they can help you get into Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale and every other university you can think of. It is true, some consultants have that level of professional experience but even they cannot guarantee you admit. If your prospective consultant is charging a huge amount of fee on the basis of such promises, please investigate further into their operations. Mostly, you will find more red flags soon.
2. They under-promise. On the other end of spectrum, there are the other kinds of consultants who cannot guarantee anything. While most of the professional consultants may not give you everything in writing in the first meeting, once they see the strength in your application, they will assure you. Yet, with these type of consultants you will find name of universities you can hardly Google or have never heard of, successful past clients in Uzbekistan or any other random country. When you find yourself surrounded by such unheard of places, it is a huge red flag.
3. Their commitments are ambiguous. This is a difficult one to catch. On the surface, they might look very professional in their conduct but their service may or may not be that effective either because they are fraudulent or because they are new to the business. In either state, you cannot risk your future on such ambiguities. Hence, when you find too many asterisks after their promises or way too ambiguous promises in themselves, it is time to dig deeper.
4. They are not showing any authorized licenses. This is the biggest red flag of all – even if your visa consultant does not exhibit any of the above conditions but has this one red flag, you need to get out of any communication with them immediately. Whenever dealing with visa consultants, ensure they have proper licensing and authorization, such as they are ICCRC approved consultant. When you have an ICCRC approved consultant you can be sure that they know what they are doing and the government has authorized them to give you the services you are paying for.
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