Canada Migration Scam
View(s):Only Canadian lawyers and Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (ICCRC members) who are Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents are authorized to provide Canadian Immigration services. To check whether the consultant is registered, please visitwww.iccrc-crcic.ca
Australian migration agents are illegal
Others including Australian migration agents (MARA members) are not authorized to provide Canadian migration services. The Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka once investigated an Australian migration representative who operated as a concealed representative for Canada migration (not declaring the representative in the application). All the clients of such representative received visa refusal. In addition, they were banned from applying again for five years. Even at present, there are such scammers openly operating in Sri Lanka with attractive advertising to lure unsuspecting clients. Also, some Australian migration agents illegally charge fees and persuade Australian migration clients to apply for Canada migration as Australian migration opportunities are fast dwindling.
Illegal Payments
An agreement must be signed between the client and the Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (not with Australian Migration Agent or such other unauthorized individual or company) and fees must only be deposited into the Canadian lawyer or consultant’s client account maintained under her/his name (not in to her/his company), a measure to protect the client by making the consultant personally liable in case of a fraud.
Illegal acts of agents/representatives
Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant may appoint an agent with the ICCRC approval ONLY. However, such Sri Lankan companies or agents accepting money from clients and/ or signing agreements with clients are ILLEGAL. AGENTS CAN ONLY REFER CLIENTS to a Canadian Consultant or Lawyer and only receive a commission from such lawyer/consultant for such referral, nothing else.
All employees providing migration advice or assistance or application filling etc. must work only under the DIRECT SUPERVISION of a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant or a Canadian lawyer. Accordingly, Sri Lankan agent or her/his employees providing migration information, eligibility assessments, advice or application assistance or even filling a form are ILLEGAL acts.
Visa refusal, banning applicant for 5 years, imprisonment
Unauthorized representatives and her/his employees are liable for imprisonment up to two years and fine up to C$ 100,000 as they are committing criminal offences. In addition, such offenders are barred from entering Canada and also are denied a visa to many western countries.
Also, the application will be refused and barred from applying again for 5 years under the legal ground ‘Misrepresentation of facts’, irrespective of whether the client was aware or not that she/he is using an unauthorized representative.
Sources – Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Regulations, IRCC (Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada), Visa officer guidelines, ICCRC Regulations, Law Society of Upper Canada Regulations
-Bandula Abeysinghe
Attorney at Law
Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant
Zenith Immigration Lawyers
www.zenithimmigration.ca