How to Report an Immigration Scam or Fraud?

Immigration fraud is a severe crime and can bring lots of financial and emotional pain to the victim. We advise prospective immigrants who receive job offers from Canadian employers to be cautious while engaging with such recruiters to avoid being the immigration scam victim.

Some fake immigration consultants manipulate innocent, hopeful migrants by sending sham emails claiming to be from Canadian immigration authorities. They create phony immigration websites that look like the IRCC portal and put on fake ads to drive the internet traffic to the website.

Many immigration fraudsters use the prospect of living and working in Canada to grab skilled workers’ attention. They are so good at manipulating that they ultimately gain well-educated professionals’ confidence and then lure them into paying them a tremendous amount of money for the immigration process.

If you suspect or know about an immigration fraud happening, report it immediately. The following information outlines how to write an immigration fraud or scam. Canada has wide-ranging measures to detect and prevent immigration offenses.

Immigration fraud includes the following offenses:

• Using a false document to support a visa application
• Providing misleading information to prospective immigrants in favor of their visa application.
• Hiding any information related to the visa application
• a marriage of convenience
• Urging you to start or pay for the process even if you are not eligible

You may immediately call the Border Service Agency (CBSA) to report the following suspicious activities:

• suspicious activity at the border
• a marriage of convenience
• a person who has given false information on any immigration application or
• a person wanted on an immigration warrant

Apart from the above, foreign nationals seeking to permanently or temporarily migrate must conduct background checks on immigration consultants before handing over their Canada immigration profiles. They can ask the following questions to check the authenticity of the consultant.

• If the immigration consultant licensed to represent your case to Canadian immigration authorities
• Check if their website looks genuine, confirm their office location, and reach out to them directly through authentic resources.
• What is the background of the visa consultant? How many years have they been serving in the immigration industry?
• Do they have any genuine reviews on the website in the form of video testimonials or Google reviews?
• Are they trying to lure you with job prospects in Canada?

Suspecting a fraud isn’t a daunting process; all you need is to be diligent and smart enough to recognize the red flags and report them before it’s too late.