How to Verify a Job Offer From Abroad: 12 Checks Before You Pay or Travel

Fake overseas job offers cost applicants their savings every day. The offers look convincing: a real company name, a letterhead, a contract, sometimes even a video call. Then comes the request for a visa fee, a medical deposit or a “work permit processing charge”, and after it is paid the recruiter disappears.

The good news is that genuine offers leave a trail you can check for free. Governments publish registers of employers allowed to hire foreign workers, and companies are listed in public registries. The twelve checks below take an afternoon and can save you years of debt.

1. Did you actually apply for this job?

Real employers rarely contact strangers with a ready-made offer. If you received an offer for a job you never applied for, from a company you never contacted, assume it is fraudulent until proven otherwise.

2. Was there a proper interview?

Legitimate employers interview candidates, usually more than once, by video or phone, and they ask detailed questions about your experience. An offer after a short text chat, or with no interview at all, is a strong warning sign. So is an interviewer who never turns on a camera.

3. Check the email address and website

Look at the part of the email address after the @ sign. A real company writes from its own domain. Offers from free accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook, or from domains that are slightly misspelled versions of a real company’s name, are typical of fraud. Type the company’s web address yourself instead of clicking links, and compare the contact details there with those in the email.

4. Confirm the company exists in the official registry

Every country has a public register of companies. Search it for the exact legal name on your offer letter and check that the company is active and that its registered address matches.

Country	Free public register
United Kingdom	Companies House
Canada	Corporations Canada and provincial registries
Australia	ABN Lookup and the ASIC register
New Zealand	New Zealand Companies Office
Ireland	Companies Registration Office (CRO)
Germany	Handelsregister (common register portal)
United States	The business register of the state where the company is incorporated

5. Check whether the employer is allowed to sponsor

In several countries only approved employers can hire foreign workers, and the lists are public.

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Country	What to check
United Kingdom	The Register of Licensed Sponsors on GOV.UK. The employer must appear on it, licensed for the right route
Canada	Ask for the positive LMIA decision letter and its number, and check the government’s list of non-compliant employers
Australia	The employer must be an approved sponsor. Check the register of sanctioned sponsors published by the Australian Border Force
New Zealand	The employer must be accredited by Immigration New Zealand, and the visa link must come from its online system
Ireland	The employment permit is issued by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, which also publishes lists of companies that have been granted permits
United States	Public disclosure data from the Department of Labor shows which employers have filed for foreign workers

Being on a register proves the company can sponsor. It does not prove that the person emailing you works there, which is why the next check matters.

6. Contact the company through its official channels

Find the company’s phone number or human resources email on its official website, not in the offer letter, and ask them to confirm that the vacancy and the offer are genuine. Fraudsters regularly impersonate real, licensed employers. Large hospitals, universities and construction firms are favourite targets. A two-minute call settles the question.

7. Is the job eligible for the visa at all?

Scammers offer jobs that cannot legally be sponsored. Check the official visa page for the occupation, the skill level and the minimum salary. Offers for cleaners, drivers, farm hands or shop assistants with “full visa sponsorship” in countries that only sponsor skilled occupations are almost always false. So are offers for routes that have closed to overseas applicants.

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8. Is the salary realistic?

Compare the offered pay with official wage data for that occupation and country. A salary far above the market rate for unskilled work, with free housing, free flights and a family visa included, is designed to stop you thinking clearly. Equally, an offer below the legal minimum salary for the visa cannot result in a visa.

9. Read the contract carefully

A real contract names the legal employer, the job title, the place of work, the salary and how it is paid, working hours, leave, notice period and start date. Be wary of documents with spelling mistakes, mixed fonts, a copied logo, vague duties or a signature from someone whose position you cannot verify. Search the name of the person who signed it on the company website and on LinkedIn.

10. Who is asking for money, and for what?

This is the most important check. In the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and many other countries, employers are not allowed to charge workers for the job, for sponsorship or for recruitment. You should expect to pay only your own government fees, such as the visa application fee, and you pay those yourself, directly on the government’s website, using your own account.

Treat every one of these as a red flag:

A fee for the job offer, the certificate of sponsorship, the LMIA or the work permit
Payment to a personal bank account, a mobile money number or in cryptocurrency or gift cards
A “refundable” deposit to prove you are serious
A requirement to use a particular travel agent, lawyer or clinic, with payment in advance
Urgency, such as “pay within 24 hours or lose the slot”

11. Verify the visa documents themselves

Sponsorship documents can be checked. A UK certificate of sponsorship is a reference number you enter into the official online visa application, and it is checked against Home Office records. A Canadian LMIA has a number that appears in your work permit application. A New Zealand application begins with a link from the immigration service’s own system. If someone sends you a “visa approval letter” as a PDF before you have submitted any application or given biometrics, it is forged.

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12. Check the recruiter or adviser

If an agency or consultant is involved, check that they are licensed. Immigration advisers must be registered with the regulator of the destination country, such as the Immigration Advice Authority in the UK, the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants in Canada or the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority in Australia. In your own country, check that a recruitment agency is licensed by the labour ministry to place workers abroad. Ask for the licence number and verify it with the ministry.

Quick reference: genuine versus fake

Genuine offer	Fake offer
You applied and were interviewed	Arrives unexpectedly, little or no interview
Company email domain	Free email account or look-alike domain
Employer appears on official registers	Cannot be found, or details do not match
Salary in line with the market and visa rules	Unusually high pay for low-skilled work
You pay government fees yourself, online	You pay the recruiter or an “agent”
Time to consider and ask questions	Pressure to pay or decide immediately
Visa process follows the official steps	“Guaranteed visa” or approval before you apply

If you have already paid

Stop paying. Fraudsters invent further fees for as long as the victim keeps sending money, and “recovery agents” who offer to get your money back for a fee are often the same people.
Contact your bank or payment provider immediately. Some transfers and card payments can be stopped or reversed if you act within hours or days.
Keep all evidence: emails, chat messages, phone numbers, account details, receipts and documents.
Report it to the police and to your country’s financial crimes or consumer protection agency.
Report it to the destination country as well. The UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand all run online fraud reporting services, and the real company being impersonated will also want to know.
Protect your identity. If you sent a copy of your passport or bank details, tell your bank and watch for misuse.

Do not use any visa or document supplied by a fraudster. Travelling on or submitting forged documents can lead to arrest, removal and a long ban from the country, even though you were the victim.

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Official sources

This article is general information. Registers and reporting services change, so use the official government website of the country concerned. If you are unsure about an offer, seek advice from a licensed immigration adviser before paying anything.