Student visa by fraud: Canada cuts list of 2,000 to 300 cases

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

JALANDHAR: The intelligence and enforcement branch of Canadian Border Service Agency has revealed that based on tips from public, they had initially identified over 2,000 cases where fraudulent documents might have been used to obtain a student visa and now, they have narrowed down such suspected cases of concern to 300. Responding to a June 8 letter sent by some students, who are victims of fraud, to Canadian public safety minister Marco E L Mendicino, asking about their immigration status in Canada, branch vice-president Aaron McCrorie has revealed these figures in his reply.

«In 2018, CBSA was investigating organised crime groups and became aware of issues with students not attending school and becoming involved in criminality and gangs. This led to new lines of enquiry which ultimately, based on tips received from the public in 2020, led us to identify over 2,000 cases where fraudulent documents may have been used to obtain a student visa.

In collaboration with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), we reviewed those cases and we narrowed them down to approximately 300 cases of concern,» the letter read. «The CBSA treats any case before it on a case-by-case basis based on the facts.

In these 300 cases of concern, circumstances vary from genuine students to those who were allegedly complicit in the scheme, to those who have allegedly taken advantage of the system to enter Canada,» McCrorie wrote. He added that as announced in June, a taskforce of IRCC officials was working closely with the CBSA to identify genuine students by assessing each case's specific circumstances.

«For these cases, we are pausing removals to allow the review to take place. Those