Among those immigrating to Canada, there are quite a few people who try to obtain permanent resident status in a far from honest way
It is no secret that among those immigrating to Canada, there are quite a few people who try to obtain permanent resident status in a far from honest way, and their purpose for coming to Canada is to receive social and medical assistance. As Russkiy Toronto notes, this primarily includes those who come under the Refugee and Family Class categories.
It is known that one of the most common ways to deceive Canadian immigration authorities is to enter into a marriage of convenience. This is when a Canadian citizen marries a foreigner for the purpose of the latter obtaining permanent resident status. Naturally, such services are not free. In many respects, this path is indeed the simplest and fastest. For comparison: to qualify under the Skilled Worker category, an applicant must have a good education, work experience in an in-demand occupation in Canada, pass an English or French language test satisfactorily, etc. Moreover, the information submitted to the embassy is thoroughly verified. The applicant has to make considerable efforts to meet all the requirements of immigration authorities, and the immigration process itself takes quite a long time.
Much the same applies to business categories. The applicant must demonstrate large sums of money, invest in the Canadian economy, or set up a business here employing native Canadians. They also undergo a thorough check by Canadian security services, and the process itself sometimes takes more than a year.
With spouse sponsorship, the picture is completely different. The sponsored spouse may have no education or qualifications, no work experience, may not know English or French at all, and can still expect to successfully immigrate to Canada. Most importantly, under current rules, the sponsoring spouse (i.e., the Canadian resident who sponsors the foreign spouse) is not required to demonstrate sufficient annual income (as required for sponsoring parents, for example). In fact, even a Canadian resident on social assistance (welfare) can sponsor a spouse. Moreover, applications in this category are processed much faster than for Skilled Worker or business class.
Naturally, this situation creates ample room for fraud, which immigration authorities constantly have to deal with. In particular, two years ago, the Canadian press actively discussed the discovery of a network of agencies in India that prepared fake evidence for spouses sponsored by Canadian citizens. These offices simulated weddings, gathering a crowd of extras, setting up wedding hall decorations, and dressing the bride and groom in festive attire. Then the sponsor would provide photos of this 'celebration' to Canadian immigration authorities as proof of a genuine marriage. The activities of these agencies became so widespread that the presence of the same people in wedding photos of completely different applicants became noticeable, and Canadian immigration authorities launched an investigation.
Another form of fraud is the deception of Canadian residents by those who want to enter Canada through family sponsorship. Often, those who enter Canada through sponsorship abandon their sponsor spouse after some time (sometimes after just one or two weeks). Meanwhile, the Canadian sponsor spouses bear all the obligations they undertook during the sponsorship process. In particular, upon divorce, they are forced to support the spouse they are divorcing or transfer part of their property to them. Cases of such fraud have become so widespread that the Mississauga center responsible for family sponsorship currently reviews more than 650 cases of this type annually. And fraud victims wait at least two years for their cases to be processed.
Particular attention to this topic was drawn by a lawsuit filed against the Government of Canada by one Saranjit Benet. His wife, sponsored by him from India, left him after a month and returned to her homeland, apparently considering that he was not providing her with the standard of living she expected. The claimant's grievance against the Canadian government is that processing his request to dissolve the marriage and revoke his wife's status on grounds of fraud on her part is taking too long. Apparently, this lawsuit will be granted class-action status, as several hundred other people in similar situations may join it.
In response to the grievances against the government and publications on this topic in the press, a representative of Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration stated that the ministry is preparing a number of initiatives to prevent cases of immigration fraud, which will be announced at the end of summer 2009. One can only assume that they will primarily affect spouse sponsorship. Perhaps the criteria that sponsors must meet will be revised, requirements for both sponsors and sponsored persons may be tightened, and document checks will become stricter. All this could lead to longer processing times for spouse sponsorship cases, as well as a greater number of refusals on suspicion of non-genuine marriage. It cannot be ruled out that document verification for all other immigration categories will also be conducted more thoroughly, leading to increased processing times for immigration cases.
It is possible that by the end of summer the ministry will propose not only initiatives to prevent immigration fraud, but also take more sweeping measures concerning the immigration sphere.
Elena Ryabinina.
«Russkiy Toronto»