Understanding immigration fees: legal, government and third-party
A single application can carry three different kinds of cost. Knowing which is which prevents most fee disputes.
By The Blift Team
Clients frequently feel overcharged when they are not. The cause is almost always that three different kinds of cost arrived separately over several months without anyone explaining the difference.
Legal fees
This is your consultant’s own fee for their professional work — the assessment, the strategy, preparing and reviewing your application. It is the only part of the total that your consultant actually sets and receives.
Government fees
IRCC charges its own fees for processing applications, permits and biometrics. Your consultant does not set these, does not keep them, and cannot waive them. They go to the government.
Third-party fees
Costs paid to other organisations along the way: language testing, credential assessment, certified translation, medical examinations, police certificates. These vary considerably depending on your situation and where you are.
What good practice looks like
A consultant should set out all three categories separately before you commit, so you can see what you are paying and to whom. On Blift these are configured against the case explicitly, which is why fee disputes are rarer here than they are over email.
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