If you're planning to apply for Express Entry:
- Take IELTS General Training, not Academic. Express Entry only accepts the General Training version for language ability points — an Academic IELTS score cannot be used for your profile.
- Understand what a consultant is paid for. A regulated immigration consultant mainly handles paperwork and submission while sitting in their office — you're still the one who has to gather every supporting document and hand it over to them. Fees reported in this thread were around ₹1.2 lakh INR in India, though prices vary by consultant and scope of service.
- Decide if you need a consultant at all. Since document-gathering is on you either way, many applicants choose to file Express Entry profiles themselves using the official IRCC portal, saving the consultant fee for cases with added complexity.
Before paying anyone, confirm your language test type matches the program you're applying to — this is one of the most common and costly mistakes applicants make.