How to become an immigration – Visa consultant ?
Immigration or visa consultancy is a skill based business. There is no specific qualification, training, exam or license requirement in India. Only local permissions as in any other business / shop establishments are required. But the Indian state of Punjab is an exception where you need to obtain a license to practice as immigration / visa consultant. Even to run an IELTS coaching center or an international air ticketing / travel agency in state of Punjab, you have to obtain a license under Punjab Travel Professional Regulation Act, through district administration. The on-line application for license has to be submitted though the portal of department of industries & thereafter the downloaded copy of application is to be submitted to the district administration of your place of work.
There is no such requirement in any other Indian state.
How to become visa / immigration consultant: License application form in Punjab:
https://pbindustries.gov.in/static/assets/docs/User_Manual_Citizen_Travel_Agent.pdf
How to setup immigration & visa consultancy in Punjab: License application documents list:
https://cdn.s3waas.gov.in/s394f6d7e04a4d452035300f18b984988c/uploads/2022/05/2022050920.pdf
Immigration / Visa consultant qualification:
Specific qualification: No qualification is prescribed in the law of the land (India) to operate as an immigration consultant or run an ielts coaching institute. So any body or even an illiterate person can practice as immigration consultant. But a little bit of qualified person or any service sector professionals like insurance surveyors, life & general insurance agents, charted accountants, Law graduates & teachers stand great chance to beat the competition. In addition to the above professionals, the people having good social & friends circle are bound to succeed as of immigration counselors.
Although, no specific qualification is required to work as migration / study visa agent in India but there is requirement of certain professional qualification, passing of an exam & licensing in most of the other countries.
How to become immigration / visa consultant in United Kingdom: Immigration advisors in UK are licensed & regulated by the “office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC)”. So, to be eligible to practice as immigration consultant in UK, one need to get OISC accreditation by passing an exam. Details of qualification, training, exam & license requirement may be checked at the following link:
How to become immigration consultant in Canada: Immigration advisors in Canada are called RCIS or Registered Canadian Immigration Consultant. As with any specialized career, relevant education is required as a first step & in order to become an RCIC, you must first get the appropriate Immigration Consultant Diploma. Thereafter you also have to pass an exam conducted by “ Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council” (ICCRC). You also have to go through the English proficiency test & be the citizen or permanent resident of Canada to enter into the immigration or migration consultancy field.
In nutshell you need to have specific qualification, be a member ICCRC & permanent resident of Canada.
“Entry to practice” exam details:
How to become visa consultantant in Australia: To work as immigration consultant or migration agent, you are require to have certain qualification, go through the training & pass an exam before the final certification. you have to be registered with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA). If you want to pursue the career as registered migration agent-RMA, you must have a Graduate Diploma in Australian Migration Law and Practice & thereafter pass the capstone assessment. So after getting through the capstone assessment you are eligible to provide the migration advice to people.
LTA web link for capstone assessment”
https://legaltrainingaustralia.com/capstone
How to become immigration consultant in USA: In USA to practice as an authorized immigration consultant, you must receive recognition and accreditation from the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Legal Access Programs (OLAP).
WEB link for US immigration consultant accreditation:
https://www.justice.gov/eoir/recognition-and-accreditation-program
How to become immigration / visa consultant in India:
Qualification requirement in India: No specific qualification is required to provide immigration or visa consultancy services in India.
But people with some formal education will always have an advantage. The service sector professionals like CA’s, Insurance surveyors, Life insurance advisors, Lawyers, Teaching professionals will certainly have an edge over others. But people with vast social & friend circle can also as visa advisor
Training Requirement in India: There is no requirement of any kind of training to run an immigration consultancy or ielts coaching business.
But people with practical experience or little bit of training have great chance to succeed. So having some formal education & training with some institute or already running consultancy will always be useful.
Exam: Since there is no qualification & training requirement to enter into visa consultancy business, question of examination does not arise.
License requirement in India: No licence, certification or any kind of accreditation is required to run a visa / immigration counseling services anywhere in India. The only exception is the state of Punjab where you need to obtain a license from the state Govt. after paying a fee of Rs. 25000.00 only.
How to become an immigration or visa consultant: (India)
a. Franchise route: if you intend to be in the business of immigration consulting, you can become a franchise of some renowned immigration consulting company. The franchise fee is Rs. 50000.00 to 5 lac varying from franchiser to franchiser. In addition to franchise fee, franchiser require franchise to have good office infra set-up & run a local advertisement campaign cost of which may be around Rs. 10 lac, so the total set-up cost for the immigration consulting business in a small town, can touch Rs. 15 lac.
Franchiser will provide you their brand name & initially handle some of cases sourced by you & in case of maturity, you will be paid commission in range of 25% to 70%.
You can search internet for various franchisers & find a suitable one for you. Here are some web links of some franchisers for your ready reference:
a. Kc overseas immigration consultant: https://www.studiesabroadfranchisee.com/become-our-franchisee/model
KC overseas Franchise brochure: https://www.studiesabroadfranchisee.com/images/homebanner/brochure_jan2022_web.pdf
Kc overseas study abroad Franchise cost: https://www.studiesabroadfranchisee.com/become-our-franchisee/model
b. How to become Land mark Immigration & visa consultant: https://landmarkimmigration.com/become-an-agent/
c. Charms overseas immigration consultant: http://charms.co.in/overseas-education-consultancy-franchise.html
d. How to become Swec overseas immigration consultant: https://www.swecvisaconsultant.com/franchisee/
e. How to become Nb Visa world consultant: https://www.nbgroup.in/franchise/
f. How to become Cross land study visa consultant: https://www.crosslands.in/franchise.html
g. Prosper oversees education consultant: https://www.franchiseindia.com/brands/prosper-overseas-education.2101
h. How to become Top link immigration & visa consultant: https://www.franchiseindia.com/brands/toplink-immigration.68143
b. Training route: If you are not willing to adopt the franchise route & want to set up the business on your own, you can find some training institute, gain some knowledge & take a start on your own. The training provider will teach you the fundamentals of immigration process of various countries. But these kind of institutes/trainers are very rare to be found. We have searched two of such training providers, web links of which are given hereunder:
a. Tourism School: http://www.thetourismschool.com/
Tourism school visa management training: http://www.thetourismschool.com/visa.php
b. Edumilestone: https://www.edumilestones.com/
Edumilestone oversees education consultant training: https://www.edumilestones.com/cccis.php
The institutes will charge Rs. 50000 to 60000.00 as course training fee.
c. Referral partner / Affiliate: The alternative to above two is to be a referral partner or affiliate of some reputed big player in the field of immigration consultancy. Referral partner need to learn only the basics of study abroad, immigration & visa consulting process & refer a prospective client to the main player. So you are only recommending these services or products to your known circle, all other job is to done by the main player.
A referral partner is a kind of channel partner or business associate, Who recommends the services offered by your company/ main player, to people from his social circle. In simple words, you may refer the prospective client i.e. the man who needs immigration advice, to your associated company.
It is just a recommendation of services offered by the main player to someone from your close contacts.
So in nutshell, you are a kind of immigration franchise without investment & what other people achieve with Rs. 10/15 lac of investment, you will be doing with Rs.Ten thousand or even free of cost.
Keeping in view the fact that you are already occupied with your main profession & cannot afford time to get physical training / internship, we have made arrangement with some reputed service providers, who have consented to provide basic on-line, off-site training in the verticals of Immigration consultancy / counseling.
You can join for an off-site internship to gain work experience & overall feel of the immigration & study visa counseling verticals of the industry. It will provide you the information about rules, regulations and procedures in the particular field. You can integrates knowledge and theory learned with practical application and skills development in a professional setting.
Details of the modules are as under:
a. Referral partner:
- Basic on-line / off line training / knowledge sharing for immigration consulting
- Off site, on the job practical guidance for overseas education, study visa etc
- Regular knowledge material for counseling
- Monthly market updates for student visa & immigration
- Hand Holding for 6 months- You will be taken along the process step by step for your cases.
- Dedicated support
- Pay out 25% – You will be given 25% of the revenue generated from your referred case
- Joining Fee: Free
b. Affiliate:
- Basic on-line / off line training / knowledge
- Off site on the job practical guidance
- Regular knowledge material
- Monthly market updates
- Hand Holding & training for 6 months- You will be taken along the process step by step for your cases.
- Dedicated support
- Access to on-line college & course search software application for immigration consultant
- Pay out 70% – You will be given 70% of the revenue generated.
- Joining Fee: Rs. 9500.00
Joining : Free Joining: Rs.9500
| Education abroad, immigration & visa consultation | Referral Partner | Affiliate |
| Basic on-line / off line training / knowledge | ✔ | ✔ |
| Off site on the job practical guidance | ✔ | ✔ |
| Regular knowledge material | ✔ | ✔ |
| Monthly market updates | ✔ | ✔ |
| Hand Holding for 6 months- You will be taken along the process step by step for your cases. | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dedicated support | ✔ | ✔ |
| Access to on-line college & course search software application for immigration consultant | ✗ | ✔ |
| Pay out -You will be given fix % of the revenue generated. Avrage revenue per case: Rs. 1 lac | 25% | 70% |
| Joining Fee | Free | Rs. 9500/- |
Join Join
Difference between Referral partner & Affiliate:
There is no big difference between the above two modes, only advantage in affiliate mode is that you will be allotted a log-in ID of college-course search software which will help you to learn quickly, the student admission & visa consultancy process. The 2nd advantage is the higher payout to the tune of 70% as compared to the 25% as in case of referral partner.
So if you are taking it causally, you can join the free training & support or if you are a little bit serious you can join through affiliate mode i.e. paid vertical. However we wish you to join in any of the options, as the sole aim is build big network of associates & use the power of network for mutual benefits.
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