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Become A Canadian (becomeacanadian.com) is a private consultancy that specializes in helping people around the globe to immigrate to Canada. They provide assistance and advice related to Canadian immigration, as well as evaluation and guidance when applying for several types of Canadian visas.
The listed office address is 1136 Centre Street, Unit 3, Suite 469, Thornhill, Ontario L4J 3M8, CANADA, while the owning company is located at Calle Arte 21, 1º B, 28033, Madrid, Spain. We cannot confirm whether these are physical locations or virtual offices.
The website is owned and operated by Immigration Solutions, S.L., which is an international private company with offices in Madrid, Spain and Ontario, Canada.
It must be noted that Become A Canadian only offers assistance and guidance towards getting a visa, but they are not affiliated with the Canadian government, thus they do not have the power to grant you a visa directly. The only authority that can grant a Canadian visa is the Canadian government.
Compare to Top Alternative Immigration Consultants:
- UIS Canada is a professional immigration consultancy that upholds a spotless and proven track record of providing the highest quality customer service. They make sure that clients have all the most up-to-date information, thus avoiding any unnecessary delays in their immigration process.
- UIS only works with RCICs and they specialize in permanent residency and temporary visas.
- Great North Visa is a top-tier, solution-driven consulting firm committed to facilitating their clients’ main objective of receiving the Canadian visa they require by providing a wide range of immigration services and settlement solutions designed to simplify your immigration process.
- Great North Visa puts an entire team of selected Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCIC) at your disposal.
Looking to get your questions answered by an expert? Book a free consultation with a regulated immigration consultant. Or continue reading…
Canada2036 Become a Canadian Review
The first thing you see when accessing the website of an immigration consulting firm is exactly that… the website. Most of these websites are well made and professional looking, which is the case with Become A Canadian as well, although it looks a bit dated and could use a facelift.
But all the information one would need is there, and available in 4 languages: English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
A thing to note is that BecomeACanadian doesn’t ask for full payment for their consulting services at the beginning of the procedure. Instead, you can pay as you go through the process, which involves several steps.
Many people want to immigrate to Canada to improve their economic situation, and often times they don’t have several thousand dollars ready for full payment, made in advance. And because receiving a visa is not guaranteed, it makes more sense to pay as you complete each step.
However, before completing any payment, with any consultancy, you should seek information about their Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCICs) because the RCIC is the person who can represent clients before the Canadian government.
RCIC Licenses at Become a Canadian
According to Canadian Federal law, consultants who provide assistance for Canadian immigration services in exchange for a fee must be accredited as an RCIC and need to be registered with the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC). This is mandatory for all Canadian visa consultants, even those who are based outside of Canada.
We have checked the status of Become A Canadian’s RCICs and we have found out they subcontract Great North Immigration Inc. to perform eligibility screenings of profiles of their end-users. Great North Immigration Inc. is managed and operated by Mr. Amir Shuval and Ms. Sigal Barak, who are both authorized by the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC), thus they can offer immigration consulting services for a fee, and they can represent individuals legally.
All this means that your application will be eventually handled by Great North Immigration Inc., although you will be a client of Become A Canadian, so one cannot help but wonder: Why not go directly to Great North Immigration Inc.? You will possibly get a lower price and will work directly with the RCIC. Regardless of the answer to that question, two things must be noted:
Firstly, Great North Immigration Inc. also works with another consultancy that we know of (Canada Immigration Express) and probably with others as well, but while this is not something very worrying.
The second thing is that the ICCRC Tribunal Committee made several Disciplinary Allegations against Mr. Amir Shuval, as a result of customer complaints. These allegations include “Failed to provide services for the fees charged; failed to provide a Retainer Agreement”, “Member and Agents impersonated Government of Canada” and “Accepted payment through unregistered agent and provided no services”.
Please note that that the allegations have not yet been proven! For more information, consult ICCRC’s Current Proceedings.
Overall, Become A Canadian is not an immigration consulting firm that we can recommend wholeheartedly and we strongly believe you have better options out there. However, let’s not forget that the company is transparent enough, and they do work with authorized RCICs. Are they the absolute best you can find? Probably not…
Become a Canadian Fees
Considering that Become a Canadian work with subcontract Great North Immigration Inc, we may expect that their fees are higher than you may find in Great North Immigration Inc. Thus, the fee could be unreasonably increased.
As an alternative to searching for more information about their fees, you may have a look at some cost-effective solutions in our recommended consultants section.
Become a Canadian Services
- Express Entry
- Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSWP)
- Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP)
- Provincial Nominees Program (PNP)
- Other Services
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Become a Canadian Online Reviews
Become A Canadian has a strong social media presence, with more than 480K followers on Facebook and more than 470K likes on the same platform.
However, their Twitter account only has 357 followers at the time of writing. Both accounts were created in February 2016 and it’s unclear why there’s such a huge discrepancy between the number of followers.
You may have a look at a couple of reviews we found:
Unfortunately, Become A Canadian doesn’t have a good standing with its clients, at least generally speaking. On Trustpilot they have only one review, with the user rating them 1 star and calling them a “scam”.
On Better Business Bureau they have an “F” rating and 16 complaints, with some people saying that their credit card was charged as soon as they gave the details and without them agreeing to it. More information here.
Editor’s Note: The Bottom Line
Although we cannot simply believe everything we read on the Internet, we cannot help but wonder where all this negativity comes from. And as the saying goes, if there’s smoke, there’s fire, so we recommend caution. But then again, you should always be cautious when money is involved, especially if it’s yours.
You may also have a look at the most trusted alternatives that we recommend.
