General · Verification
How do you verify that an overseas immigration programme is real?
Five checks: first, find the statute itself — published in an official gazette, by parliament or on a government site, not in an intermediary's PDF; second, identify the competent authority and the official application channel, which must sit on a government domain; third, find the official fee schedule; fourth, match any individual approval to a document reference and the gazette text; fifth, screen for four red flags — screenshots only, paraphrased provisions, non-government domains and guaranteed timelines. If any check fails, the claim is unverified, not established.
1. Find the statute, not a summary
Every programme ultimately rests on a law or a regulation. Ask three things: the number and year of the instrument, the specific article, and where it was officially published. Albania's citizenship rules sit in Law No. 113/2020, with Article 9 rewritten by Law No. 49/2026 and published in Official Gazette FZ 2026/116. Sierra Leone's naturalisation conditions sit in section 8 of the Citizenship Act 1973, as amended in 1976 and 2006.
The order of authority runs: official gazette, then the competent authority's own site, then consolidated texts held by international or academic databases, then intermediary websites. Intermediary sites are useful only as evidence that a claim circulates in the market, never as evidence that it is true.
- Albania's Official Publications Centre: https://qbz.gov.al
- Albania's Presidency copy of the Citizenship Law: https://president.al
- Sierra Leone Citizenship Act 1973, including Schedules II and III
- EU documents: rely on consilium.europa.eu and ec.europa.eu originals
2. Identify the authority and the official channel
The statute says who may decide; the website says where to apply. Both must line up. In Albania residence and citizenship policy sits with the Ministry of Interior, and residence applications are filed through e-Albania. In Sierra Leone visas go through evisa.sl, residence and work permits through unifiedpermit.gov.sl, passports and border movement through the Immigration Department at slid.gov.sl, while citizenship is decided by the Cabinet member responsible for citizenship under the Citizenship Act.
If the link you are given is not on one of those domains, or documents are collected by private email and money by private account, that is a structural signal: either the channel is unofficial, or unofficial work is being done on top of an official process.
- Albania: mb.gov.al (Ministry of Interior), e-albania.al (applications)
- Sierra Leone: slid.gov.sl, evisa.sl, unifiedpermit.gov.sl, ncra.gov.sl
- Method: search the official site for the programme name and look for a notice or service page
- Warning signs: shortened links, blogs, file-sharing drives or private domains
3. Find the official fee schedule
Fees are both the easiest thing to misstate and the easiest to check. Authorities usually publish a fee page: Sierra Leone's Immigration Department lists passport issue and renewal at USD 100 and notes that prices may change with the USD-to-Leone rate, while permit fees are priced by type on the Unified Permit platform.
If a quoted “government fee” cannot be found on an official page, ask for the specific line item and link. Without it, treat the figure as unverified and do not pay in advance.
- Locate the official fee page before comparing any quotation
- Check currency and exchange-rate clauses
- Separate government fees from professional service fees
- No official line item means unverified
4. How to check an individual approval
Claims such as “it is already approved” or “we have an internal confirmation letter” must reduce to checkable elements: the issuing authority, the document reference, the date, the legal provision relied on, and whether the instrument was published in the gazette. If any element is missing, the approval is not established.
The check is straightforward: search the reference on the authority's website or call the published number; for gazetted instruments, look up the year and issue number and read the original. A refusal to provide the reference on confidentiality grounds is itself a risk signal.
- Elements: issuer, reference, date, legal basis, gazette issue
- Check: official website or official telephone, not a screenshot
- Gazette: verify by year and issue, not via a reposted copy
- Refusal to give a reference: treat as unverified
5. Four red flags that should stop the process
The first is presenting a rewritten provision as the original: a widely circulated Sierra Leone “confirmation letter” described itself as paraphrased for clarity, and the reworded sentence does not exist in the statute. The second is evidence that exists only as a screenshot or an unsourced PDF on a non-government domain.
The third is a guaranteed timeline — “passport in weeks”, “approval assured”. The fourth is bundling citizenship with unrelated benefits, such as escaping tax reporting or qualifying for a student examination. Claims of that kind are usually refuted directly by the official documents.
- Rewritten text presented as the statute
- Screenshots or unsourced PDFs outside government domains
- Guaranteed processing times or assured approval
- Citizenship bundled with tax or exam benefits
- Requests to pay into a personal account
6. A question list you can send as-is
Send these questions verbatim and see whether the answers are specific. A proposal that can cite numbers, links and original wording is checkable; one that repeats “we have done many of these” or “we have internal contacts” is not.
The list also works as a self-check: if you cannot answer it yourself, the programme has not been verified to the standard required for a public commitment.
- What is the exact name, number and year of the law?
- Which article applies, and what does it say verbatim?
- Which government domain handles the application?
- What is the government fee, and where is the official fee page?
- Which authority decides, and is there a statutory deadline?
- Were there official notices or policy changes in the past 12 months?
- What is the appeal route and deadline if refused?
- Which specific work does your service fee cover?
- Can you provide a redacted approval sample showing the reference format?
- What can you not guarantee?
Frequently asked questions
Can an intermediary's website be used as evidence?
No. A commercial site shows only that a claim circulates in the market. Verification goes back to the gazette, the competent authority's site or the official application channel.
If it is not on a website, is it necessarily fake?
Not necessarily, but it must be treated as unverified. Some procedural detail exists only in internal guidance or behind a login, as with parts of Sierra Leone's permit platform; in that case ask for the official written basis rather than assuming the claim.
How can I quickly test an approval document?
Check five elements: issuer, reference, date, legal basis and gazette issue, then verify the reference with the authority. Missing elements, or a refusal to share the reference, mean unverified.
Why should no one promise a passport in weeks?
Deadlines are set by law and by the authority, and individual cases depend on document completeness, background checks and scheduling. A fixed promise contradicts the official position and shifts the risk to the client.
What if an official website contradicts the statute?
Follow the statute and the gazette. Outdated pages are common — some ministry pages still quote repealed residence periods. Record both sources with retrieval dates and use the statutory text in public statements.
Sources and verification
- Albania Official Publications Centre (gazette of laws and decisions) — https://qbz.gov.al/
- Albania Presidency — Citizenship Law No. 113/2020 (consolidated) — https://president.al/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ligj-per-Shtetesine.pdf
- Sierra Leone Immigration Department (fees, notices, permit policy) — https://slid.gov.sl/
- Sierra Leone Unified Permit platform (residence and work permits) — https://unifiedpermit.gov.sl/
- Council of the EU press releases (official enlargement position) — https://consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/
Related pages
Would you like to look into this further?
Tell us the practical question you want to resolve, who in the family is involved and your expected timing. We will verify the applicable route and your circumstances first, then set out the next steps and the documents needed.