What Happens When You Hand Off Your Immigration File to a Licensed Professional

What actually changes at handoff

A handoff on Navisa Relay is not one action. It is two separate phases with a real boundary between them, and the boundary is acceptance — not a request, not a browse, not a "maybe."

Before a professional accepts, they see a name and a case summary. That is all. Nothing about your documents, your entered facts, or your decision history is visible yet.

After a professional accepts, your complete organized file — documents, entered facts, and decision history — transfers into their workspace instantly. Nothing is re-typed, and nothing before that point was ever shared beyond the name and summary.

That single boundary is the whole mechanism. Everything below is what sits on either side of it.

Before you request a handoff: what stays private

Requesting a handoff does not put your file in front of every professional on Relay, and it does not put it in front of anyone before they have agreed to take it.

What a professional sees before accepting:

• Your name.
• A case summary — the kind of program and situation involved, at a level a professional needs to judge fit, not a level that exposes your full record.

What a professional does not see before accepting:

• Your uploaded documents.
• The facts you have entered into your Prep workspace.
• Any prior decision history, flags, or notes.

If a professional passes, or never responds, none of that additional material was ever exposed to them. The summary stage exists specifically so a professional can judge fit — province, program, language, specialization — without your full file being anyone's to browse.

The moment of acceptance: two-phase consent, step by step

1. You request a handoff. From your Prep workspace, you choose to make your case summary visible to professionals who match your filters (province, language, program).
2. A professional reviews the summary. They see your name and the case summary only, and decide whether this is a case they can take on.
3. A professional accepts. This is the boundary. Acceptance is a deliberate action a professional takes — it is not automatic, and Navisa does not make this decision for either side.
4. Your organized file transfers instantly. The moment a professional accepts, your documents, entered facts, and decision history move into their workspace as they already exist in yours. Nothing is re-typed by you or by them.
5. The professional now works from your existing record, not a fresh intake. What took you time to organize in Prep does not need to be reconstructed from scratch.

If a professional declines or does not respond, you are not obligated to anything, and no additional information was ever shared beyond the initial summary.

What transfers, and what doesn't

What transfers at acceptance:

• Your uploaded documents.
• The facts and answers you have entered.
• Any decision history or flags already recorded in your workspace.

What never transfers, at any phase:

• A commission or referral fee. Introductions on Relay are free on both sides, always.
• Any assurance that a professional will accept a request — acceptance is never automatic or promised.
• An automatic match. Navisa does not choose a professional for you, and does not choose which requests a professional accepts — that decision belongs to the professional, and the decision to request a handoff at all belongs to you.

Verifying the professional independently

A handoff moving your file to someone is exactly the moment independent verification matters most. A professional's license on Relay is shown as declared — what they entered on their own profile — with a direct link to the official register, so it can be checked in seconds, for free, independent of Navisa entirely:

• RCICs: the CICC public register.
• Lawyers and notaries: the Federation of Law Societies of Canada's law societies directory.

For the fuller picture of what "shown as declared" means and what Navisa does and does not check before a profile goes live, see how Navisa Relay verifies professional licenses. For a broader guide to verifying any consultant or lawyer, anywhere, see how to verify a licensed immigration consultant.

Where Navisa Relay fits

Navisa Relay is the bridge between organizing your own case in Prep and handing it to a licensed professional when your situation calls for one. The two-phase consent model exists so that requesting a handoff never feels like losing control of your file before anyone has agreed to take it — and accepting a case never means a professional starts from a blank intake.

Navisa does not choose your professional, does not promise that any request will be accepted, and does not charge either side for the introduction. The decision to request a handoff is yours; the decision to accept one is theirs.

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.