Canada aspirant wins Rs 1.07 lakh payout over immigration agency’s poor IELTS training

The complainant alleged that even though payments were made, there was allegedly no initiative from the immigration consultancy to conduct classes or give proper training for writing the IELTS exam.

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3 min readNew DelhiJun 15, 2026 08:34 PM IST First published on: Jun 15, 2026 at 10:12 AM IST

The District Consumer Commission in Kerala’s Kozhikode has ordered an immigration consultancy agency to refund Rs 92,180 and pay a compensation of Rs 15,000 to a student who allegedly failed to achieve the necessary cutoff marks in the IELTS exam for going to Canada, as the institute never conducted proper classes to complete the course schedule.

A bench of president Priya S and member V Balakrishnan was dealing with the plea of a student who registered herself at Amster Immigration Overseas Pvt Ltd for the preparation of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam.

“The evidence of the complainant stands unchallenged. The opposite party chose to remain ex parte. No contrary evidence exists. Deficiency of service and unfair trade practice on the part of the opposite party stands proved through the testimony of witnesses,” the court said on May 29.

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Canada dream, agency’s negligence

The complainant, who wished to pursue higher studies in Canada, had allegedy approached the opposite party (Amster Immigration) for IELTS exam preparation.
For this, the office staff at Mankavu was contacted, and they gave a detailed description of the IELTS exam and its processing.
They also assured that if there is any chance of not travelling to Canada, the fees collected from the applicant would be returned after deducting the processing fee.
The company also informed the applicant that the processing for Permanent Residency (PR) in Canada can be done at the beginning, and the IELTS exam can be written later.
The fees for PR processing and IELTS were collected in three instalments. Accordingly, the woman applicant remitted Rs 70,000 in July 2023.

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An amount of Rs 6,180 was also paid that month. Later, Rs 16,000 was paid for joining the IELTS course.
Even though the payment was made, there was allegedly no initiative from the opposite party to conduct the classes or to complete the course schedule as promised.
The opposite party is also said to have given no proper training for writing the IELTS exam.
As a result, the complainant stated that she could not score the cutoff mark.
As demanded by the opposite party, Rs 11,372 had been paid at her university for getting a transcript of her post-graduate degree programme.
Besides, Rs 15,285 was paid to the agency for evaluation of the credentials of the certificates submitted in India and Canada.

‘Forced to join another institute’

The complainant alleged that the agency did not take any step to assist her in going to Canada, and also failed to give the proper directions, even though all the fees were paid as demanded.

Thereafter, the complainant was forced to join another institute to complete the IELTS examination preparation course. During the time, there was no reply to phone calls or emails to the opposite party.

After collecting the required fees, they had allegedly not provided proper assistance, and there was an unfair trade practice and a deficiency of service on their part.

Jagriti Rai

Jagriti Rai works with The Indian Express, where she writes from the... Read More