By: Muhannad Samara, RCIC
December 16, 2018
Formal Immigration Representatives Vs. Coordinators
To make an informed decision on a matter that is as critical as selecting the person who will assist you with your immigration / Citizenship process, you must first discern the difference between a formal representative and a coordinator of an immigration/citizenship or residency process.
Formal Representatives are professionals who have the authority to represent an applicant before the official department of Immigration / Citizenship in any given country. They are allowed to speak to the authorities and make submissions on your behalf as well.
Formal Representatives are usually lawyers or immigration consultants working under a strict climate that is governed and regulated. In Canada for example, 3 different types of professionals are allowed to represent individuals in immigration matters. Lawyers who are members in good standing of their relevant law societies, Immigration Consultants who are members in good standing of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council and Quebec lawyers and notaries.
In Portugal, only lawyers are permitted to submit applications on behalf of applicants. So in Portugal, there is only one professional who may represent you.
Immigration Process Coordinators are business people who bring all parties together, the applicant and the formal representative, and may offer a comprehensive solution to applicants.
For example, a business person in Turkey, sets up offices and advertises Residency by Investment in Greece. This Turkish business person does not have the authority to represent before the Hellenic Republic’s immigration authorities, he therefore contracts with a lawyer in Athens, and gets the lawyer to do the submission on behalf of the applicant. This business person will charge a fee for his/her service. The fee might come from the applicant or as a kickback from the Greek lawyer.
The question that begs itself is, why would an applicant need to add a second layer of people to deal with? Why don’t I, as an applicant, just hire the lawyer/ consultant myself?
There are many reasons; although hiring a lawyer or a consultant may prove cheaper and more economical, except that applicants may find it cumbersome to find a lawyer they can trust. In other instances, the language barrier sits as one of the main reasons why applicants choose to go with coordinators. The coordinator speaks the language of the lawyer and can make things easier for the applicant.
There is a price that you pay for this convenience, which is the coordinator’s fee.
Good Formal representatives are professionals who have experience and who have built a name in their respective market. They are professionals working with national or international law firms whose standards of service had caused their recognition. A lawyer who has experience in a respective immigration / citizenship law and more importantly, regulations, is someone who charges a fee for his/her service. This fee is higher than that of a lawyer who has no experience in the field of immigration / citizenship. Going for a lawyer who charges less, is a decision that must be very carefully made, as, if the reduced fees are related to the lawyer’s efficiency or experience in the matter, expensive mistakes could have dire consequences on the applicant.
Coordinators; The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, a massive industry, with a lot of businesses created and added to this sector every day. Coordinating the process of immigration and citizenship, if done right, can save an applicant significant time and money. It could be a nightmare however, and could hurt the investor financially and, more seriously, on the immigration front, if entrusted to a less experienced person.
A coordinator who just brokers an applicant to a lawyer in Malta whereby the coordinator makes a commission / kick back or a referral on the lawyer’s legal fees, is not someone who is likely to offer world class service to his/her clients.
As in this case, the role of the coordinator would literally be linking the applicant with the Formal Representative. If the coordinator was slightly tilted to the professional side, they may continue to be involved in managing or responding to some communications.
A world class coordinator, however, can make an applicant’s life much easier and provide assurances and a complex matrix of services that ensure the clients’ best interests are protected at all times, that even Formal Representatives themselves cannot offer.
