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An immigration scam is any offer, message or website that takes your money, your documents or your personal details by pretending to be something it is not: a job, a visa, a government office, or a person allowed to give immigration advice. People at the very start of a move abroad are the main target, because they do not yet know how the real process works, and a scammer's whole trade is knowing that. This post lists the scams first-time applicants to Canada and New Zealand meet most, the sign that gives each one away, and how to check before you pay anyone anything.
Anyone who has been offered a job abroad by someone they have never met, been promised a visa, or been asked to pay a fee they do not understand. It is also for the family member at home who is being asked to send the money. If you have not started your move yet, read this before you reply to the first message.
Every scam below has a tell: something the real process never does.
The most common scam of all is a job offer that asks the worker to pay for it: a fee for the offer letter, for the work permit, for "processing", for the employer's paperwork, or for the recruiter's costs. The tell is the direction the money flows.
In Canada, an employer hiring a foreign worker often needs a Labour Market Impact Assessment (an LMIA, a government document showing that no Canadian worker was available for the job; our post on what an LMIA is explains it). The employer applies for it and pays for it. The government's programme requirements for employers state that the LMIA processing fee cannot be paid by nor recovered from the worker, and that neither the employer nor anybody recruiting on their behalf may charge or recover recruitment fees, directly or indirectly, from the worker.
In New Zealand, Immigration New Zealand (INZ, the government agency that decides New Zealand visas) says plainly on its page on protecting yourself from scams that employers cannot charge you fees for a job or make you pay any of their recruitment costs.
So a "job" that costs you money is not a job.
No agent, employer or website can guarantee you a visa, a job or an invitation to apply. IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the department that decides Canadian immigration applications) says on its scams page that no one can guarantee you a job or a visa to Canada, and warns against paying for guaranteed entry or faster processing. INZ says an adviser cannot promise a faster decision or a prioritised application, because it decides every application by assessing the information it has against the immigration rules.
A message says your visa, your invitation or your approval is ready and will be released as soon as you pay a fee, usually urgently, and usually into a personal bank account or through a money transfer service. The tell is the payment method and the urgency.
IRCC says it will never ask you to deposit money into a personal bank account or to transfer money through a private money transfer service, and that it does not send visas by email. INZ says it only accepts visa application fees by debit or credit card through its own application forms, and will never ask you to pay by depositing money into a bank account. Government fees are paid inside the official application, never to a person who contacts you afterwards.
Copycat sites borrow official names and logos, charge for information that is free on the real site, and collect your passport details. The tell is the address.
Canada's government websites end in canada.ca or gc.ca. New Zealand's immigration website is immigration.govt.nz, and INZ says its emails come from addresses ending in immigration.govt.nz or mbie.govt.nz. IRCC says it never uses free email services such as Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, and will never send you an email asking for your private information. Read the address in your browser character by character, and never enter personal details on a page whose address does not begin with https://.
Someone phones claiming to be an immigration or government officer, says there is a problem with your file, and demands immediate payment, sometimes with a threat of deportation or arrest. IRCC says it will never ask you for any sort of payment by telephone, and that it never threatens applicants. If a caller does either, hang up. A real problem with a real application reaches you through your official online account or by letter, and you can always phone the official number yourself to check.
Scammers copy a real company's name, logo and address onto a letter, sometimes with the name of a real manager found online. The company exists; the offer does not. The tell is the route the offer took to reach you. A real employer interviews you, writes from a company email address rather than a free one, and does not ask you to pay. INZ's advice is to speak to the employer directly, for example through an interview, and IRCC warns you to be careful if the salary seems too high to be real. Contact the company through the phone number on its own website, never the one printed on the letter.
For Canada, start with whether you need one at all. Most of the main skilled routes do not, as our post on whether you need a job offer for Canada explains. Where a Canadian offer does support a work permit, it usually rests on an LMIA the employer has applied for: ask for the LMIA number and the employer's confirmation letter, and remember that the employer has paid for it, not you. The routes themselves are set out on our Canada page.
For New Zealand, the main work visa for people with a job offer is the Accredited Employer Work Visa (the AEWV, explained in our post on the Accredited Employer Work Visa), and an employer must be accredited by INZ before it can hire on it. INZ's scams page tells you to confirm the employer is accredited using INZ's own online tool before you accept. Our post on whether you need a job offer for New Zealand covers which routes need one, and our New Zealand page sets out the routes.
Both countries restrict who may take money for immigration advice or representation.
For Canada, only a licensed representative may charge a fee or receive any other payment to advise you or act for you. IRCC's page on who may charge for Canadian immigration advice names the bodies they must belong to and links the registers where you can check a name, and says that if a person is not a member in good standing you should not use their services.
For New Zealand, anyone who gives New Zealand immigration advice must hold a licence or be exempt from needing one, and INZ's page on who can give New Zealand immigration advice says there are significant penalties for advising without one. That page links the public register where a licence can be checked, and says licensed advisers must charge fees that are fair and reasonable.
Before you pay anyone for immigration advice, ask for their licence or registration number and check it with the regulator for the country you are applying to.
You are also always allowed to apply on your own. Every form, every fee and every rule is published on the official websites for free.
Stop paying, and keep every message, receipt and letter. Report it: IRCC's protect yourself from fraud pages explain how to report immigration fraud in Canada, and INZ says to report a scam to the police in your own country and to contact INZ directly if you are unsure whether something you have been told is real.
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