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XIPHIAS Immigration

Verification guide

How to verify an immigration consultant in the UAE

Anyone can print a certificate. Only a regulator can publish a register. Here is how to use one.

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Checkable on the regulator's own register

The five-minute check

Ask the firm for the licence number of the individual who will handle your file, then search it on the destination regulator's own website. Not a screenshot, not a PDF certificate, not a logo on a homepage — the regulator's live register.

For Canada that is the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Search by College ID and read two columns: Status, and Entitled to Practise. Only an active status together with Entitled to Practise showing Yes means the person may legally advise you for a fee.

For Australia it is the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority. Search the MARN and check the agent appears with a current registration and the business name you were given.

There is no equivalent UAE register for outbound immigration advice, which is precisely why the destination country's register is the one that matters. A UAE trade licence confirms a company exists. It says nothing about whether anyone there may lawfully advise you on a Canadian file.

What the register will not tell you

A register confirms a person is licensed. It does not confirm the advice you were given is sound, that the fee is reasonable, or that the firm will still be answering the phone in eighteen months.

So ask additionally for a written service agreement, a fee schedule that separates government charges from professional fees, a refund position stated in writing, and the name of the person who will actually handle the file rather than the person selling it to you.

Be wary of anyone who guarantees an outcome. No consultant anywhere can guarantee a visa — the decision belongs to the destination country's immigration authority, and promising otherwise is itself a breach of the Canadian regulator's conduct rules.

Warning signs that are specific to this market

A quoted “processing time” for permanent residence that sounds like a visa run. Permanent residence to Canada or Australia is measured in quarters and years, not weeks, and anyone compressing that is describing something else.

Payment demanded in full before an eligibility assessment. An assessment against published criteria costs an hour of someone's attention; it does not require your fee.

Pressure tied to a deadline that belongs to the seller rather than to you — a draw “closing”, a programme “about to change”, a price rising on Friday. Programme changes are published by governments in advance and are checkable.

And an office that will not put the licence number in an email. Anything a firm is happy to say out loud but unwilling to write down is worth noticing.

Our own numbers, and where to check them

The Canadian practice is delivered under RCIC licence R516194, listed on the CICC public register against XIPHIAS Immigration DMCC and XIPHIAS Immigration Pvt Ltd. Australian matters run under MARA registration 1680615. The Managing Director, Varun Singh, is a Fellow of the Investment Migration Council.

Each of those links above goes to the issuing body's own database, not to a page we control. Check them before you speak to us, not after.

Common questions

Is there a UAE regulator for immigration consultants?
Not for outbound immigration advice in the way Canada and Australia regulate it. A UAE trade licence confirms a company is registered to do business; it does not authorise anyone to give Canadian or Australian immigration advice. The destination country's register is the one that answers that question.
Is ICCRC the same as CICC?
It is the same regulator under a new name. ICCRC was continued as the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants in November 2021. A firm whose website still says 'ICCRC registered' has not updated its compliance copy in several years, which tells you something in itself.
Can a company hold an RCIC licence?
No. The College licenses individuals, not companies. A firm can employ or work with a licensed consultant, and the register shows the company each licensee is associated with — which is exactly how you confirm the connection is real rather than implied.
What if I have already paid someone who turns out to be unlicensed?
Stop sending documents and money, keep every message and receipt, and get the file reviewed by someone who is licensed before anything is submitted. An application filed badly is harder to fix than one not yet filed, and a misrepresentation on a submitted form has consequences that outlast the consultant who made it.

XIPHIAS provides immigration consulting and documentation support. It is not a law firm, and nothing on this page is legal advice.

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