Legal
Refund policy
What can be refunded, what cannot, and how to ask. This applies to services and applications you pay for online.
Last updated 5 August 2026. Global Hire, Suite 210, 4935 – 55 Ave NW, Edmonton, Alberta T6B 3S3, Canada.
The short version
Our fees are earned as the work is done. What can be returned depends on how far your file has gone — a great deal before we start, less once we are working, and nothing once your application has been submitted.
Government fees are not ours to refund. Once we have paid them to the government on your behalf, only the government can return them, under its own rules.
On this page
1. Paid consultations
A paid consultation reserves a named block of an advisor's time. That time is taken out of the diary the moment you book it and cannot be sold to anybody else, which is why the fee for a paid consultation is not refundable once the appointment is booked. You are asked to confirm you understand this before the booking is taken.
Two things follow from that, and they cut both ways:
- You can move it. Tell us at least 24 hours before the appointment and we will reschedule you once at no charge. The fee follows you to the new time. Less than 24 hours, or not arriving at all, and the fee is used up.
- If we cancel, you are refunded in full. If we move or cancel your appointment and cannot offer you a time that works, the whole fee comes back to you. That is not a discretion - it is the other half of the same bargain.
An initial consultation booked through one of our referral partners is free. Nothing is charged, so there is nothing to refund, and none of this section applies to it.
If you paid for a consultation and we then act for you on an application, we will tell you at the time whether the consultation fee is credited against the professional fee for that work. Where we say it is, it is.
2. Our professional fee
This is what you pay Global Hire for our time and expertise. It is earned as the work is done, so the stage your file has reached decides what can be returned.
| Stage | What normally happens |
|---|---|
| Before we begin | You have paid but we have not started preparing anything. We will normally refund the professional fee in full, less any cost already incurred on your behalf. |
| Work has started | We have begun assessing, preparing or drafting. A refund at this point is at Global Hire's discretion and will reflect the work already completed. Part of the fee may be returned; part may not. |
| Application submitted | The professional fee is not refundable. The work you paid for has been performed, whatever the outcome. |
"Discretion" here means a person looks at your file and decides what is fair given the work done, and tells you the reason. It does not mean we refuse by default.
3. Government fees
Where a service includes a government fee, that money is not ours. We collect it and pay it to the government on your behalf — it is shown as its own line before you pay, precisely so you can see which part is which.
If we have not yet paid it onward, we will return it. Once it has been paid to the government, only the government can refund it, under its own rules and timelines. We will tell you what those are and help you ask, but we cannot return money we no longer hold.
4. Tax
Where sales tax applies, it is charged on our professional fee and shown separately. If a professional fee is refunded, the tax charged on the refunded amount is refunded with it.
5. Refusals and outcomes
Immigration decisions are made by government authorities, not by us. Nobody at Global Hire can guarantee an outcome, and we never do.
A refused application is not by itself a ground for refund. The work was prepared and submitted; that is what the fee paid for. This is the ordinary position across the profession, and it is why we would rather tell you honestly at a consultation when we think a case is weak.
If a refusal was caused by an error on our part, that is a different matter — tell us, and we will look at it properly.
6. How to ask for a refund
Ask in writing through our contact form, or reply to any email from us. Please include your name, what you paid for, and the date.
We will reply with a decision and the reason for it. The earlier you ask, the more can usually be returned — if your plans change, telling us straight away is always better than waiting.
Approved refunds go back to the card or account you paid from. Your bank decides how long that takes; it is usually a few business days.
7. If we cancel
If we cannot continue with your matter — a conflict of interest, or something that means we cannot properly act for you — we will tell you why and refund the professional fee for work not yet done.
8. Duplicate and mistaken payments
If you pay twice for the same thing, or pay an amount that was clearly not intended, tell us and we will return it. We would rather you told us, but we check for these ourselves too.
Questions
Ask before you pay if anything here is unclear — send us a message. See also our terms of service and privacy policy.
Nothing in this policy removes a right you have under Canadian consumer protection law.