Canada Urging India, China And Philippines To Curb Immigration Fraud

10 Sep 2010

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is on a visit to India, China and Philippines and he would meet the ministers and officials responsible for immigration to discuss issues of immigration frauds, illegal immigration, human trafficking etc and also Canada’s announcement to increase the number of Federal Skilled Worker immigrants.

Jason Kenney had the following to say, “At a time, Punjab officials indicated they shared my concern with this illegal activity and committed to crack down on crooked consultants. Since then, there have been media reports of a number of arrests in Punjab of crooked immigration consultants. I look forward to discussing progress made to-date and our continued cooperation on this issue."

He said,” Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is helping a growing number of Indians to visit, study in and immigrate to Canada.”

He also added that “For over a century, Canada has benefited from the talent and hard work of newcomers from the subcontinent.” And, “Some one million Canadians can trace their ancestry to India, and now a growing number of Indians are getting the chance to visit family and friends in Canada, study at Canadian colleges and universities, or indeed immigrate to Canada as permanent residents.”

Last year, India was the top source country of immigration to Canada, with more than 32,000 permanent resident visas issued to Indian nationals, an increase of 13% from the year before, and 53% more than the three-year average from 1997 to 1999.

The number of Indian students visas increased due to Canada-in-India Student Partners Program launched earlier this year by CIC in cooperation with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.

”Thanks to the new Canadian Experience Class introduced by our government, many of these bright young Indians will have a convenient way to become permanent residents in Canada if they choose to do so at the end of their studies,” Minister Kenney said.

Canada is also improving access to visas for Indian students who choose to study at Canadian community colleges. Since April 2009, CIC visa offices in India have received more than 9000 applications from Indian students in the program, leading to a tripling of the number of student permits for these colleges.

Immigration fraud has been a problem in India where fake document production (fake marriage licenses to fake bank documents) and bogus applications are produced. Minister Kenney would ask for stronger law-enforcement against these ‘crooked consultants’ with the argument that it will take longer time for legitimate applications to be processed in view of increased work on fake documents and bogus applications.

Minister Kenney’s visit to China and the Philippines will also focus on improving cooperation and collaboration on finding and then prosecuting crooked consultants, and on how Canada’s decision to increase the number of Skilled Worker immigrants will affect them.