I enlisted the aid of Great North Visa so that an RCIC (as they indicate on their website) would assist us with the paperwork and the application submission for family sponsorship spousal class. When we arrived in Montreal on September 11th to facilitate the move of our property we were informed by a customs agent with immigration at YUL that there was no visa application submitted on our behalf, even though we paid an additional $3000 to prioritize the submission. This was three months into the process of us supplying all sorts of information and documents. I immediately contacted our Senior account Manager Daniel Kennedy at Great North Visa who became emphatic that border control agents don't have access to visa status. When I asked about proof of submission he stated that there was no way to track the application. Alarmed, I went to the CICC website and discovered Mr. Kennedy is not listed as a credentialed RCIC. He is not even authorized to represent us or submit a visa application on our behalf. I filed a report there. My call to Great North Visa to speak to a supervisor was given lip service. No one called me back to address this issue. The only call I received was from custom relations (Gabriela Daniels) when they discovered I contacted my credit card company to dispute the charges. Immediately I took it upon myself to initiate the family sponsorship process. We filled out copious paperwork, collected fingerprints, police reports and went for biometrics, all processes GNV and Daniel Kennedy failed to address. Clearly we were victims of a scam. Unfortunately my credit card company has been swayed by their corporate presentation and has not rendered a refund. Stay away at all costs!
Dear Sheri,
Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
We would like to start by saying that we're deeply sorry for any inconvenience caused to you during your process with us. It was not our intention to cause concern, and we appreciate the opportunity to address some of these matters with you.
For your convenience, we will address these matters one by one:
1. Great North Visa does exclusively subcontract fully authorized Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants. These are consultants of good standing, certified by the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Authority (ICCRC). This information can be found here: https://www.greatnorthvisa.com/about-us/.
2. Mr. Kennedy is not an RCIC and never proclaimed to be one. The reason your case was not yet assigned to an RCIC is that it was incomplete.
3. You would not have found information about your application status with border control because they are only aware of approved visas. Since your application was not lodged yet, you did not find any information about it. As soon as your case would have been ready for submission, you would have signed a retainer agreement with an RCIC and received login details to track the status of your application.
4. Ms. Daniels only reached out to you to find out what happened after your report because we were never made aware of these concerns.
We apologize again for an inconvenience or misunderstanding. We hope that at this time we were able to shine some light on your case with us.
Please feel free to contact us at any time if you have any further questions or thoughts.
Kind regards,
Great North Visa