A member encountered a situation twice where they were asked to pay someone (framed as an "agent") to have their online application submitted or processed, despite believing the whole process should be free, and stopped both times unsure what was legitimate.
What the thread clarified:- You don't need an agent, consultant, or lawyer for any part of a standard application. Members were direct that the entire process — from creating an account to submitting your application — can be done yourself without paying anyone as an intermediary.
- A payment request during your application may actually be the official IRCC application fee, not an agent charge. Before assuming you're being scammed, check the exact amount requested against IRCC's published fee schedule on their official website.
- The correct fee will always match a documented, published IRCC fee for your specific application type — if the amount doesn't match anything listed officially, or if it's being requested by a third party rather than paid directly through IRCC's own payment system, that's the signal something may be wrong.
The practical takeaway: you never need to pay an agent to submit or process a standard Canadian immigration application yourself — if you're asked to pay, verify it's the official IRCC fee (paid directly through IRCC's system) by checking it against their published fee schedule, rather than assuming any payment request is legitimate.