Beware of Fake Immigration Consultants

Canadian Immigration lawyers often warn foreign nationals against hiring an uncertified Canadian Immigration consultant. A recent story uncovered in Montreal, Quebec, gives a good explanation for that attitude.

Montreal Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police charged 39 people earlier this month in relation to an investigation into a massive fake marriage scheme. Hundreds of false marriages are suspected to be revealed, all of which were ploys to allow foreign nationals to immigrate to Canada as sponsored spouses. The mastermind behind this scheme is an unlicensed immigration consultant named Mr. Amadou Niang, who allegedly counseled his clients to misrepresent facts in order to remain in Canada once their visas were about the expire.

Mr. Niang organized fake marriage ceremonies, with false witnesses, and used a network of women recruited in Montreal to pose as spouses for money, sometimes as much as $60,000!

A CBC News report in 2011 revealed that CBSA (the Canadian border authority) was given about 200 leads of fake marriages, but not much came of this issue. Once has to understand that CBSA is not equipped, since it is a border authority, to address the issue. The proper authority to report such abuse is CIC, more specifically the Case Processing Centre in Vegreville, Alberta. This is the agency in charge of processing spousal sponsorships.