Canada Has Rejected 595 Indian Study Permits Suspecting Fraud

OTTAWA, (IANS) – A total of 7,528 study permit applications from India were rejected by the Canadian authorities between January 2018 to May 2023 over misrepresentation, involving false or altered documents, according to Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) data.

Beginning this year, a total of 595 of these applications by Indian students, which also included extensions, were refused till May 31, with 195 cases of misrepresentation detected in a single month.

Misrepresentation involves giving information that is untrue, misleading, or incomplete, which can make an applicant inadmissible to the country for five years, or permanent removal from the country.

Consequently, the applicant is ineligible for permanent residency and has a permanent record noting fraud in their immigration file.

Examples of misrepresentation include not mentioning a family member; not mentioning a change in family status; or providing a false document declaring employment experience, among others.

Recently, hundreds of Indian students faced removal from Canada after letters of acceptance submitted as part of their study permit application were determined to be fraudulent.

The Canadian High Commission said that the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Citizenship Act require that people who provide paid immigration or citizenship advice or representation be “authorized”.

With 226,450 students, India became the top source of new international students entering the North American nation in 2022.

The country’s primary department for immigration-related matters also announced last year that Indian citizens make up 35 percent of study permit holders in Canada.

Home to the largest Punjabi diaspora in the world, Canada is the most preferred destination for students in Punjab, who roughly make up about 70 percent of the Indian cohort in Canada.

A Canadian study visa offers these students easy passage to permanent residence within five to six years.