How a licensed immigration professional handoff should work

A transparent handoff to a licensed Canadian immigration professional looks like a sequence a person can see and stop. It does not look like a silent assignment.

Discovery is not acceptance. Acceptance of a handoff request is not representation. Representation, if it happens at all, is a later arrangement with that professional — in writing, with scope and fees stated — and, if they will deal with IRCC, through IRCC’s own representative form.

Navisa Relay is the consented door to a licensed professional. Navisa does not choose the professional. The applicant requests. The professional accepts or declines.

The sequence at a glance

The process standard is discover → review → consent → request → assess → accept or decline → establish scope separately.

1. Discover a licensed professional through a public profile.
2. Review the profile and verify the current licence on the official public register.
3. Consent to a specific recipient and to specific information.
4. Request a handoff. Sending is not acceptance.
5. Assess. The professional independently reviews fit, competence, conflicts, and whether they can take the work.
6. Accept or decline. Both paths are ordinary outcomes. Neither path is a quality verdict.
7. Establish scope separately. Fees, retainer, and representation are defined with the professional after a request is accepted — not by the request itself.

The complementary Insights article What happens at an immigration handoff explains the two-phase data boundary: what stays private before acceptance and what can move after. This article is the process standard around that boundary.

Discover via profiles

A profile is a discovery surface. It is how an applicant finds a named licensed professional.

It is not a ranking of quality. It is not an endorsement. It is not a pay-to-play placement. Navisa does not assign anyone.

IRCC’s learn-about-representatives page, last modified 2026-08-18 and checked 2026-08-22, says using a representative is a choice. It will not draw special attention. It does not mean the application will be approved. The same page says the forms and instructions needed to apply are free on the government site.

IRCC Help Centre answer 444, date modified 2026-04-17 and checked 2026-08-22, repeats the same limit: the Government of Canada treats everyone equally, whether they use a representative or not.

If paid advice or representation is what a person wants, IRPA s. 91, page modified 2026-08-20 and checked 2026-08-22, limits who may represent or advise for consideration to lawyers and Quebec notaries in good standing, other law-society members including paralegals, and members in good standing of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants.

A profile can help a person find someone in that authorized set. It cannot make that person their representative.

Review the professional, then verify the licence

IRCC’s how-to-choose page, last modified 2026-08-18 and checked 2026-08-22, tells a person hiring a paid representative to find out if they are authorized — meaning they have a licence to practise and give advice. If the paid representative is not authorized, IRCC may return or refuse the application.

The same day’s authorized-representative page, last modified 2026-06-04, is the official check list:

• Citizenship or immigration consultants must be members of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants.
• Lawyers or notaries must be members of a Canadian provincial or territorial law society, or the Chambre des notaires du Québec.
• Paralegals (Ontario only) must be members of the Law Society of Ontario.

If they are not members in good standing, IRCC says you should not use their services.

Those checks belong on the official public registers, not on a third-party badge:

• RCICs and RISIAs: the CICC Public Register, retrieved 2026-08-22. The College describes it as the official record. Anyone can use it to verify licensee status, good standing, and discipline history.
• Lawyers, Quebec notaries, and other law-society members: start from IRCC’s authorized-representative page, which lists each provincial and territorial society. The Federation of Law Societies of Canada about-us page, retrieved 2026-08-22, also lists the 14 member societies. The older flsc.ca/law-societies/ path redirected to an image on that check date, so this article does not treat that path as the live directory.

On Relay, a licence is shown as declared — the number and type the professional entered — with a link to the official register. That display is not Navisa’s confirmation. The register is.

Viewing a profile moves nothing confidential

Opening a profile, reading a bio, and following a register link do not transfer a file. They do not notify a professional that a particular person is looking. They do not create a client relationship.

A handoff request is a later, separate action. Until someone consents and sends that request, the process has not left discovery.

What a consented request may later share, and what stays private until a professional accepts, is the two-phase boundary in What happens at an immigration handoff. This article does not restate that inventory.

Specific informed consent

Consent for a handoff is specific. It is not a blanket “share my file with professionals.”

Before a request goes out, the applicant can see:

• the intended recipient — one named professional, not an open list;
• the selected information — what this request would make available now, and what would remain held unless that professional later accepts;
• a way to stop — leave the page, change the recipient, or withhold consent. On Relay, the consent checkbox is not pre-selected.

A person can also withdraw a pending request. Withdrawal is an ordinary control, not a penalty.

Consent is the applicant’s decision. Navisa does not send a request on someone’s behalf.

Sending a request is not acceptance

A request says: this named professional may review a bounded, consented summary and decide whether to take the handoff opportunity.

It does not say the professional has accepted. It does not say they will accept. It does not appoint them with IRCC. It does not start a retainer.

IRCC’s IMM 5476 page, last updated November 2025 and checked 2026-08-22, is the form used to appoint, update, or cancel a representative with IRCC and CBSA. Completing that form is a later, separate step. A Navisa handoff request is not that form. IMM 5476 also states that a person is not obliged to hire a representative, and that they can appoint only one representative at a time for each application.

The professional reviews independently

The professional’s decision belongs to the professional. Navisa does not accept a request for them.

Fit is theirs to judge: program area, language, location, and whether the matter is work they actually do.

Competence and conflicts are not platform settings. The CICC Code of Professional Conduct, Justice Laws Full Text of SOR/2022-128, date modified 2026-08-20 and checked 2026-08-22, requires a licensee to refrain from services they are not competent to provide or that are beyond the scope of their licence (s. 19). A licensee who lacks competence must decline to act, or obtain assistance from another authorized person with the client’s consent (s. 20). Conflicts of interest are a separate duty (s. 15).

Lawyers and notaries have their own society rules. This article does not invent those rules. The check is still the official society register and that society’s published standards.

Capacity here means an ordinary practice question: can this professional take the work. It is not a statutory term quoted from IRCC.

Accept or decline — both paths are neutral

Accept and decline are both complete answers.

Decline (or expiry) ends that request. The applicant is not obligated to that professional. They can request someone else, keep organizing the file, or stop. A decline is not a finding about the applicant.

Accept, on the current public Relay applicant and demo copy in this repo, is acceptance of a handoff opportunity: further contact and a consented transfer into a workspace. The live demo states that accepting authorizes the consented workspace transfer. It does not create a professional retainer or promise representation.

That product limit matters. A green “accepted” state is not “this person now represents you before IRCC.”

Scope, fees, and representation stay a separate arrangement

After a request is accepted, the professional relationship is still not finished. It has not started as representation until the professional and the applicant define it.

IRCC’s choose-a-representative page, checked 2026-08-22, tells a person hiring a paid representative to discuss the services and the fee, and to get a written contract that lists the services and clearly states the fee before signing.

The CICC Code, same check date, is more specific for College licensees. Section 23 requires a written consultation agreement before an initial consultation, including the fee or a pro-bono statement and the purpose and scope of the consultation. Section 24 requires a written service agreement before consulting services are provided, including an itemized list of services and their scope, fee estimates or a fixed fee, payment terms, and any advance payments and refund policy.

Those documents are between the applicant and the professional. Navisa is not a party to the retainer. Professional fees are the professional’s. Representation, if the applicant wants the professional to deal with IRCC, still requires IRCC’s own appointment step.

Using a representative does not guarantee approval or special attention. IRCC says so on the pages cited above.

What each party controls

The applicant chooses whether to look, whom to request, what to consent to share, whether to send, and whether to continue after a decline.

The professional chooses whether the request fits, whether they can take it, and whether to accept or decline. After acceptance they still define scope, fees, and any representation.

Navisa organizes the sequence and the consented door. It does not choose a professional, does not assign a request, and does not become the representative.

A handoff never implies

• Discovery is acceptance.
• Sending a request is acceptance.
• Acceptance of a request is representation.
• A profile is an endorsement or a sold placement.
• Navisa chose, paired, or assigned the professional.
• Approval, special attention, or a faster IRCC decision.

If the next step is to look at licensed professionals through that consented door, Find a licensed professional. Relay’s public overview is at Explore Relay. Professionals who want to publish a profile can start from Relay for professionals.

Navisa publishes public-information and product-workflow references. Navisa is not a lawyer, RCIC, or immigration representative; no Insight article gives legal advice or guarantees an immigration outcome.