Checking a placement abroad before you pay anyone
Quick answer
Six checks that cost nothing, in the order that saves the most money. How to verify an offer, an employer and a fee without relying on the seller.
The placement seller and the placement verifier are usually the same person. That
is the structural problem, and the answer is to check the things you can check
independently rather than to ask better questions of someone with an interest in
the answer.
Check one: does the organisation exist, and did you find it yourself?
Find the organisation’s own website using a route you control, not a link the
seller supplied. Look for a registered address, a company or charity registration
in the destination country, and staff you can identify. Cross-check the
registration number against the registry that issues it — most countries publish
a searchable register.
Check two: is the offer from the organisation or from the seller?
Ask for the offer letter on the organisation’s own letterhead with a contact who
works there. Then contact that person through a channel you found independently —
the organisation’s switchboard, its published email domain — and confirm the
placement exists, that they arranged it, and who will supervise you.
Check three: the fee, and what it is for
Ask for the fee itemised in writing: what each component buys. Legitimate
components are things someone actually does for you — visa documentation
assistance, language tuition, airport transfer, accommodation placement, insurance.
Unjustifiable components are vague: “programme fee”, “placement fee”,
“administrative charge” with no description.
Then ask the direct question: is the employer paying the organisation, or
am I? In a genuine internship the employer bears the cost, because they
get work from it. Where the candidate pays for the privilege of working, the
organisation’s incentive is to collect fees from as many candidates as possible
rather than to place them well.
Check four: the refund and cancellation terms, in writing
Ask what happens if the visa is refused, if the host cancels, if the organisation turns out not to exist as described, and if you cancel for your own reasons. Get it in writing before you pay.
The refund position on visa refusal matters most, because refusal is common and outside your control. A seller who will not put those terms in writing has told you what they are.
Check five: the supervision, by name
Ask who your supervisor will be, by name, and what they do. A structured
placement has someone accountable for you and a written description of the work.
If no name is available, or if the answer changes when you ask twice, that is the
finding.
Check six: the authorisation, confirmed by the authority
Confirm with your own country’s embassy or consulate in the destination, and with
the destination’s immigration authority where you can reach it, that the described
arrangement is permitted on the permission you will hold.
An agency’s reassurance about immigration is worth nothing; the detail is in visas and work authorisation.
The signals that mean stop
- A guarantee of placement, a visa outcome, or a paid role afterwards.
- A fee quoted only after several conversations, or only verbally.
- Pressure to pay before any organisation has been approached.
- Testimonials offered instead of a contactable former intern.
- A refusal to say who is paying whom.
- An offer letter with no reference number and no contact at the employer.
If it goes wrong
Keep every document: the offer, the contract, the receipts, and the
correspondence. The receipt is the whole of your case for a refund, and the
employer’s written confirmation is the whole of your case for the placement having
existed.
Your own country’s consulate is the first call if you are abroad and unsafe;
consumer protection in the seller’s country is usually the route for a refund,
and the process is described in
consumer rights and
complaints.
What a legitimate paid programme looks like
Paying is not itself the problem. A paid programme is defensible when the fee buys
something identifiable and separable — accommodation arranged and inspected,
language tuition, a transfer, an insurance policy, a supervised research project,
or staffing for a placement team that actually telephones employers.
The test is whether each line describes work someone has to do. “Programme fee” does not; “four weeks of language tuition” does.
Comparisons worth making between programmes
Once several programmes offer the same destination, compare on the rows that
change what you get rather than the rows easiest to display:
- Is the placement secured before you pay, or attempted after?
The second is a materially different product, whatever the marketing says. - How many interns does the organisation place in a year? A
number too large for its stated team is a warning. - Who supervises, and is that person at the host organisation or at the
agency? Supervision by the agency is not supervision at work. - What is the refund position on visa refusal, cancellation by the host,
and withdrawal by you? Three different scenarios with different answers. - Can they give you two former participants you can contact?
Not testimonials but contacts. A seller who cannot produce one has not placed many.
Timing the payment
Pay as late as the seller’s genuine deadlines allow, and never pay in full before the host organisation confirms the placement in writing. A deposit against work already done is reasonable; the full amount against a promise is not.
Questions students ask
How do I check whether an internship abroad is real?
Contact the employer through a channel you found yourself, not one the seller supplied, and confirm the placement exists and who will supervise you. A seller cannot make an employer confirm something that was never agreed.
Should I pay a fee for an internship placement?
Ask whether the employer is paying the organisation or you are. In a genuine internship the employer bears the cost. A candidate paying for the privilege of working moves the value the wrong way.
What should I get in writing before paying?
An itemised fee, the refund terms including what happens if a visa is refused, and the name of your supervisor. Refusal of a visa is common and outside your control, so that refund clause matters most.
Common questions
How do I check whether an internship abroad is real?
Contact the employer through a channel you found yourself, not one the seller supplied, and confirm the placement exists and who will supervise you. A seller cannot make an employer confirm something that was never agreed.
Should I pay a fee for an internship placement?
Ask whether the employer is paying the organisation or you are. In a genuine internship the employer bears the cost. A candidate paying for the privilege of working moves the value the wrong way.
What should I get in writing before paying?
An itemised fee, the refund terms including what happens if a visa is refused, and the name of your supervisor. Refusal of a visa is common and outside your control, so that refund clause matters most.