Look out for these warning signs to differentiate between a genuine and fake student visa consultant

Studying or applying for a job abroad is definitely lucrative and opens up a global perspective for students. This is the reason why a huge number of students throng to the international countries for their under graduation and post-graduation degree. To apply to abroad countries is not easy and there are a number of exams that one needs to clear as well as have all the relevant documents in place. This is the reason why students take the help of the study visa consultants who take care of all these formalities and help the students with a smooth transition.

The majority of students hire a consultant to help them with their immigration. Unfortunately, in the recent past, this has also created a space for fake consultants to start cheating candidates with illegal yet tempting promises.

New Zealand student visa or visa to any other country takes a lot of money and in case you fall for the wrong company then this will not just shatter your dreams of landing in a good university or a job aboard but it will also dupe you of lakhs of rupees.

Listed below are a few steps that you should follow to make sure that the student visa consultant that you are approaching is genuine.

Pay close attention to the content on the website

A website can give you a lot of idea about the company. The first time you see the website it may look beautiful and attract your attention but that is not enough. Look close and see if the website is actually genuine. Read through the website content and this will give you an idea if the content is informative or not. A fake company will have no valuable information on their website. Also, look closely for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

Check their Email address

Pay close attention to the email address of the consultant. A reputed company will not use any random email id. Be sure to check the email address thoroughly before you open it. It is possible that the email itself could have some malware that could in turn put your information at risk. If you receive an email from a consultant then it should have a proper email id that looks genuine and with the address usually with the company name. If not then there are chances that the company that you are dealing with is fake.

How are they asking for payments?

A reputed student visa consultant company will never ask you to make payments through WhatsApp or through a chat app. All information regarding payments or your visa application will be on email from their authorized email address. Genuine visa consultants will tell you to make payments directly to the Universities bank account and not to the consultant bank account. Thus if you get a payment link on your SMS or on WhatsApp, then this should raise an alarm. The payment link should also take you to a secure payment gateway page so you know that the consultant is genuine.

Conclusion

These are some of the main pointers that should raise a red flag. It is however always advised that you dig as much as possible before you hire a student visa consultant.