How foreigners are deported because of scammers
700 students have fallen victim to one fraudulent counselor. Now they have to be deported.
Fraudsters do not stop pretending to be immigration consultants. International students suffer the most from them — cheaters give them fake college or university admission documents. With them young people successfully cross the border of Canada, and then find out that they were not taken to study, and that they are in the country illegally. Soon these poor souls are deported, and sometimes banned from entering Canada for 5 years.
Ignorance of the law does not exempt from responsibility
Karamjit Kaur, a girl from India, could have had exactly the same situation. But she was lucky: international students, her husband and lawyers stood up for her. So far, her deportation has been postponed, and the girl has a chance to stay in Canada as a refugee — it is dangerous to be in Punjab, her home region.
Kaur arrived in the country in 2018 on a letter of acceptance from Seneca College in Toronto. As it turned out, she had not seen her immigration counsellor in person before and had not even read the paperwork she had provided to Customs. After she moved, the false counselor told her that she could not be admitted to Seneca College because he and the college administration had not reached an agreement on the terms of her studies. The girl did not sence the scam and enrolled at another college, which she successfully completed. Now she lives and works in Edmonton. She married a Canadian and was about to receive citizenship. But in 2023 it turned out that the letter of enrollment was forged, and the girl herself had to be deported. Kaur was able to prove that she didn't know the document was fake. She found 700 fellow victims who had also been deceived by a dishonest counselor. Now the man, who is in India, is facing charges.
The main problem in Kaur's case was the forged signature on the application for study permit. The counselor put it on behalf of the girl and she did not know what was written in this document. However, she was aware that he had signed the document. According to Canadian law, it is interpreted this way: Kaur was aware of the falsification of the document, and it is the applicant's responsibility to verify the information provided in the application. It turns out that the girl broke the law of the country, lied in the documents and is subject to deportation, even though she did it without malicious intent. As we mentioned, Karamjit's deportation has been postponed and she has a chance to stay in the country on humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) grounds. However, many people were less fortunate and were removed from Canada by court order.
Among the victims are hundreds of students
Since May 29, students from Punjab, who have also suffered from consultant fraud, have started a protest under the Ministry of Immigration. They are asking to be allowed to stay in the country because they did not know that their documents were fake and they studied and worked in good faith. In their case, the blame also lies with the Department of Immigration, which did not properly check their documents. If immigration officials couldn't figure out that the letters of enrollment were fake, how could the foreign students?
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