Immigration is on to Caribbean nationals with bogus Canadian citizenship

OTTAWA, Canada, CMC – Canada has announced new measures that could possibly affect Caribbean nationals who gained citizenship using fraudulent means.



Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said that at least 1,800 immigrants could have their citizenship revoked after most of them were helped by three or four “crooked immigration consultants” on how to concoct fake proof of residency in Canada.



To become a citizen, a person is supposed to have lived in Canada for three out of four years.



While Kenney did not name the nationalities of those to be affected by the new measure, he said “sadly, there is an industry of what we call unscrupulous agents operating around the world who sell advice on how to take advantage of Canada to break our laws”.



“And there are some people – thankfully, I think a small minority – who are prepared to pay big money in order to falsely obtain Canadian citizenship,” he added.



Kenney said that a disproportionate number of the 1,800 cases come from “tax haven” countries. He did not identify them. But several Caribbean countries have in the past been deemed to be “tax havens”.



“What they did was hire crooked citizenship consultants to create fake proof of residency in Canada so that they can get citizenship and access to our health care and subsidized tuition rates,” Kenney said, adding “but, at the same time, [they] stayed overseas without contributing to the Canadian tax base”.



By launching this enforcement action, the immigration minister said the Canadian government is “sending the message that Canadian citizenship is not for sale”.



He said that the individuals will have an opportunity to raise an objection to the revocations in the federal court.



“There's a very, very fair and frankly exhaustive legal process,” said Kenney, noting that, since 1867, Canada has only revoked the citizenship status of 66 people.



He predicts that few individuals will fight the process given “the strong, convincing evidence” the government holds of the fraud involved.



Kenney said his department employed sophisticated computer technology to identify suspicious patterns in citizenship applications.



Among other things, he said it uncovered one office address in Mississauga, Ontario, which was listed as the home residence for more than 300 applicants.



“We started to put together the patterns of questionable activities, questionable addresses, and we chased this stuff down and found that much of it was facilitated by the same handful of consultants,” Kenny said.



Joshua Sohn, vice-chair of the Canadian Bar Association's immigration section, hailed the operation but suggested the size of the crackdown might put too much strain on the legal system.



“I think it's a good thing that the government is signalling that it's going to take this seriously,” he said. “It's a question of balancing that with some pragmatism as well.”



Sohn said even the simplest citizenship application takes about a year to process.



Citizenship and Immigration Canada also announced the introduction of a new 10-year, multi-entry visa that the department says will make it easier for individuals to visit Canada.



“The 10-year visa will be an option to more low-risk travellers who are citizens of visa-required countries,” it said.