Immigration

Globe NEWS: More than 10,000 foreign student acceptance letters may be fake, says top immigration official

Enhanced checks by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada have found scores of would-be foreign students who said they had a genuine place to study may have been attaching a fraudulent acceptance letter to their application to get into Canada.

The tighter checks were introduced after a group of international students applying for permanent residence last year faced deportation because an unlicensed immigration consultant in India had submitted fake acceptance letters with their applications for study permits.

Bronwyn May, director-general of the International Students Branch at the Immigration Department, told MPs last week that since IRCC started verifying acceptance letters from colleges and universities in the past year, officials have “intercepted more than 10,000 potentially fraudulent letters of acceptance.”

She said 93 per cent of the 500,000 acceptance letters attached to study permit applications the department checked in the past 10 months had been verified as genuine by a college or university.

But 2 per cent were not authentic, 1 per cent of applicants had had their place cancelled by a college or university, while in other cases, colleges and universities failed to respond to say whether the letters offering applicants a place to study were genuine.

She told the Commons immigration committee that the IRCC was making further inquiries into the source of the fraudulent letters.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said “the revelation that the government recently uncovered 10,000 fake admissions letter is extremely alarming.”

“It’s unconscionable that the Liberals allowed unscrupulous actors to exploit and abuse international students for so long,” she said in an e-mailed statement. “Not only does the government need to identify who those actors are, they need to also identify the institutions that may be collaborating in any fraud schemes.

“It is important to not just protect the integrity of the program, Canada also has a responsibility to ensure that international students in Canada that have been defrauded are protected.”

Ottawa launched a probe into 2,000 suspicious cases involving students from India, China and Vietnam last year. It found that around 1,485 had been issued bogus documents to come to Canada by immigration consultants abroad.

Many were refused entry to Canada after their letters of acceptance from colleges were found to be fake, but others had already arrived.

Since December last year, colleges and universities have been required by IRCC to verify letters of acceptance through an online portal. On Jan. 30 this year, the measure was extended to study permit applications and extensions submitted from within Canada.

Immigration.ca NEWS: Canada Braces for Border Surge Amid Threat of Mass US Deportations Under Trump

Despite Joly’s assurances, immigration advocates and opposition politicians urge Ottawa to develop a proactive humanitarian plan. NDP MP Jenny Kwan called for transparency, saying, “What needs to happen is for them to be open and transparent with Canadians.” Ensuring preparedness at the border and readiness to provide essential services could be critical in mitigating the pressures of a sudden increase in asylum seekers.

CIMM#114: Recent Reforms to the International Student Program

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
Aside from looking at patterns of potential violators—the groups and organizations taking advantage of students with these fraudulent letters of acceptance—will you be including in the analysis what types of institutions are being utilized for these fraudulent letters? In other words, is it private institutions versus public institutions, colleges versus universities and so on? Will that be part of the analysis?

Bronwyn May, Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
It's not always the case that a letter originates from an institution. We would need to look at various possible sources.

 

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
Maybe I can reframe that.
Obviously, as these are fraudulent letters of acceptance, they wouldn't be issued by the institutions. However, regarding the list of institutions being used for the purpose of these fraudulent letters, I would be interested in obtaining information to determine what percentage are private institutions and public institutions, how many of them are colleges, how many of them are universities and so on. That will tell us very specific information that I think is important when trying to tackle fraudulent activities.

 

Bronwyn May, Director General, International Students Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I completely agree. That's a very important line of analysis.

 

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC
I will make the further request to make sure you share this information with the committee. I'll argue that this information should not be kept secret. It should be public and transparent—shared with all Canadians—so that we're aware of what the landscape is and of how international students are being taken advantage of. With respect to that analysis, will there be information and data on what countries are being targeted?

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

CBC NEWS: MPs Green and Kwan lead NDP calls on feds to allow open work permits for temporary workers

 

The committee's report found that the system creates conditions that can lead to exploitation and abuse.

NDP MPs Jenny Kwan and Matthew Green say the government needs to take this a step further by allowing all temporary workers access to open work permits in an effort to prevent abuse.

"The reality is, if you're tied to one specific employer, you are really at their behest to do what they demand of you," Kwan said.

"No matter what the abuse is, no matter if you're faced with wage theft, with harassment, with violence, for women, with sexual harassment — you just have to live with it."

She said the least the federal government can do to curb abuse in the temporary worker system is to end the closed work permit system.

The committee also recommended increasing the number of unexpected, on-site workplace inspections and developing a plan to provide more permanent residency pathways to low-wage and agricultural workers.

More than half of workplace inspections take place virtually, according to the report.

Globe NEWS: Ministers urged to explain how they will prevent a surge in asylum seekers from U.S. after Trump election

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said Ottawa needed to prepare for the arrivals of migrants. She said most asylum seekers arriving at border points from the U.S. would be turned back because of the Safe Third Country Agreement. However, she questioned whether the U.S. should continue to be considered by Canada as a safe third country for migrants after Mr. Trump is sworn in as president.

She said during Mr. Trump’s previous administration, migrants facing deportation were separated from their children and, in some cases, “put in cages.” She added that during the campaign, Mr. Trump also used discriminatory language about undocumented residents.

CP24 NEWS: Joly says Canada's immigration plan stands in face of Trump deportation threats

 

Anti-immigration policies and rhetoric during his first administration prompted a surge of migrants into Canada, in particular at a rural border road in Quebec.

Canada recently announced plans to cut back on the number of newcomers and Joly said that won’t change when asked Thursday by a reporter what Canada’s plan is for a possible surge of migrants.

“We want a migration system that Canadians trust,” Joly said. “We will defend it, and that’s why also we decided to lower the immigration targets 20 per cent to have the trust of the Canadian people in it.”

NDP MP Jenny Kwan said Ottawa needs a plan that will prepare for an influx of migrants in a humanitarian way.

“What needs to happen is for them to be open and transparent with Canadians,” she said.

CPAC NEWS: NDP, labour call on Liberals to abolish closed work permits 

OTTAWA — NDP critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) and NDP critic for Labour Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre) announces a plan to end the exploitation of migrant workers in Canada. They are joined by Elizabeth Kwan from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and Derek Johnstone from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

Immigration.ca NEWS: Canada Introduces Temporary Immigration Measures For Those Fleeing Lebanon

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan questioned why the Ukrainian emergency visa program has not been repeated for people in other conflict zones.

“The government has announced measures for those who have already left Lebanon, but nothing for those who are in still in grave danger and desperate to get to safety, Kwan said.

 

CTV NEWS: Communication issues, double standard for Lebanese-Canadians trying to escape war, says lawyer

"At the time, officials actually pointed out to (the Liberal government) that this would be precedent-setting and it would be difficult for them to explain why they would not apply this to any other countries that might be in conflict zones where Canadians have loved ones and in grave danger. And those officials are exactly right," said federal NDP Immigration Critic Jenny Kwan. 

"What the communities and what the NDP wants for the government to do is to treat all the communities equitably and fairly," added Kwan. "They say that it's discriminatory, they say for Ukrainians they have this high standard of special immigration measure, but that measure is not being applied for anyone else. Not for Lebanese, not for Palestinians in Gaza, not for Afghans who served Canada... all of those have limitations and are not nearly as broad as the Ukrainian measures."

"So, people are asking, ‘what is the difference?’ and the obvious answer for them is the colour of their skin."

CIMM#113: Pension Transferability and Access to Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), and Delays in Permanent Residence and Visas for Hong Kongers

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC

All right. Thank you.
Hence, we have this problem. You have the Canadian government, which created this lifeboat scheme for Hong Kongers who are fleeing persecution in Hong Kong as a result of the national security law. The government, in its wisdom or lack thereof, created this lifeboat scheme that only provides for temporary residence by way of a work permit or a study permit. Then these people have to go to the queue to make an application for permanent residence, and we know that there is a huge backlog and delay in processing.

In the beginning, there was swift action, but as time has passed, it's been lengthened by way of the delay, to the point where the former minister even made an announcement to further extend people's work permits and study permits for another three years. That is to say, a person could be here for six years—as long as six years—under this current scheme without getting permanent residence. This is because the minister anticipated that people would not be able to swiftly get their permanent resident status. That is the reality.

As a result of that, people are not able to provide proof of permanent residence, because the application is in process. To make it even worse, the government—the minister—just made an announcement about the levels plan, cutting levels to the tune of 105,000 permanent resident status applications.
You can imagine how long the wait-list is for Hong Kongers as they continue to wait. Now, these Hong Kongers have zero intention of returning to Hong Kong, because they know that they would be persecuted if they did. People know that. I think the Canadian government knows that.

This is my question, then, to you as the manager of their pension, which, because of this rule, they're unable to access: Would your organization be willing to write to the regulator to ask for consideration for these applicants who are in a prolonged period of waiting for permanent resident status, to ask that their declaration indicating that they do not intend to return to Hong Kong be accepted as proof that they intend to leave Hong Kong permanently so that they can access their pensions? Is that something that your organization would consider doing?

Maryscott Greenwood, Global Head, Government Relations, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

I think I understand the question.
The basic premise of your question has to do with the period of time it takes for the Government of Canada to determine and provide permanent residency or citizenship. It seems to me that this is a function of the Government of Canada, as opposed to a regulated entity. That's how I would answer that.

Laura Hewitt, Senior Vice-President and Head, Global Government Affairs and Public Policy, Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc.

Yes. I would say that it's not within our authority to change the criteria.

However, our numbers show that once that permanent residency does come through, we're able to process the applications and approve Canadian permanent residents.

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting