Canada seeks extended support and cooperation by Indian Punjab in fight against phony consultants and fake document vendors

At the end of his week long formal visit to India, the Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Canada (CIMC) Minister Jason Kenney called on Chief Minister Punjab Parkash Singh Badal and sought his support and cooperation to crackdown the "developing industry" of document vendors and phony consultants exploiting large numbers of Punjabis wanting to go to Canada.

According to an estimate, two of every three temporary visa applications are rejected by Canadian officials in Chandigarh due to the fake documents that are submitted with applications. These fraudulent documents include, but not limited to, counterfeit letters from MPs, identification papers, employment offers, university transcripts and diplomas, funeral announcements and even pictures of false wedding ceremonies.

Expressing concern over the issue, CM Punjab assured the Minister that Punjab Government would extent its fulsome support and cooperation to evolve a permanent solution to curb this illegal practice.

CM was apprised in the meeting that few owners of marriage palaces are involved in arranging fake marriages in connivance with travel agents/immigration consultants to provide photographs of marriage in support of proof for the purpose of Canadian visa to illegal persons. CM assured the visiting Canadian Minister that State Government would take stringent action against the erring travel agents involved in the exploitation of women in getting them married with the persons intended to seek Canadian Visa which ultimately result in broken marriages.

"Our Canadian officials in Chandigarh are regularly dealing with fraudulent documents produced by unregistered immigration consultants, including fake passports, fake endorsement letters from Canadian Members of Parliament, fake death certificates and many more," said Minister Kenney. "Although the approval rate for temporary visas has improved over the last year, the large number of unauthentic documents being submitted to the Chandigarh mission is a very serious problem for the integrity of Canada’s immigration system. I am pleased that the Chief Minister of Punjab says he will act on this commitment to crack down on unscrupulous immigration consultants, and I look forward to assessing the success of this promise later this year."

Kenney said unscrupulous consultants have been known to target a program, and then tailor the applications to that program. A recent example involved Canada's live-in caregiver program. A surge of applications for the program in 2007 raised eyebrows at the office in Chandigarh, largely because they were from men, who are not the traditional caregivers in India. Officials subsequently discovered many applicants presented documents that said they graduated from care-giving schools that did not exist.

Kenney said there has been a lack of interest in the past on the part of the Indian authorities to pursue visa fraud, but that he expects much closer cooperation between Canadian officials and Chandigarh police in the future.

Canada is the only country to operate a visa office in Chandigarh. The Chandigarh office of the Canadian High Commission opened in 1997 and first began issuing visas in 2004 after former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien attended the opening of the Consulate General of Chandigarh in 2003. About half of the Indo-Canadian community in Canada hails from Punjab.