Canada to Deport Indian Student for Fake College Letter

An international Indian student, Karamjeet Kaur, aged 25, is to be deported from Canada following the discovery her college admission letter is a fake.

Karamjeet has been in Canada for five years and has made every effort to prove that she did not know that the letter was fake but the authorities are not accepting her plea.

The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has made the judgement that Karamjeet Kaur is to be deported by May 29, 2023.

Karamjeet is living in Edmonton in Canada and comes from a poor and rural Punjabi family back home, who spent their life savings to help her go abroad to study and work.

After Karamjeet had made her application for permanent residency, it was then when she was notified about the situation.

The Canada Border Services Agency informed her that the admission letter from Seneca College in Toronto, which had secured her student visa, was a forgery.

Kaur eventually managed to get a transfer to NorQuest College in Edmonton, where she graduated in 2020 from a business and administration management programme.

Since her studies, Karamjeet has secured employment as a supervisor for a company in Edmonton and got married to a Canadian citizen.

Her work permit expires in November 2023 but prior to this ruling, she was heading to become a permanent resident of Canada.

After Karamjeet’s application for permanent residency, it was then she was notified about the situation.

The Canada Border Services Agency informed her the admission letter from Seneca College, which helped her get a student visa, was a forgery.

In an interview during a protest regarding the deportations of Indian students, Karamjeet said:

“We thought that the immigration process is very strict and that they verify everything when they are giving the visa.

“I was really shocked. I’ve already been here five years. Canada is my country now.”

Avnish Nanda of the law firm Nanda & Company, has taken on Karamjeet’s case. Speaking of her candidacy as a model immigrant needed in Canada, he says:

“She’s contributed so much, and she has the kind of character commitment to this country that we want in young immigrants.”

Nanda said immigration officials in both India and Canada believed that Karamjeet’s college admission letter was legitimate.

According to those trying to help students in Canada like Karamjeet Kaur, it’s revealed that the same education agent in India gave as many as 700 students fraudulent admission letters to Canadian post-secondary schools.

Jaswant Mangat is representing about 40 students in various stages of their admissibility hearings before the immigration board.

He said that the visa processing of his clients was done too hastily, often within a week:

“There was no oversight or verification system.

“If agents [in India] know that (Canada’s immigration) system is unable to detect fraud, they’ll continue to commit it.”

According to lawyers and activists who spoke with The Canadian Press, this decision will likely have ramifications for hundreds of other international students in Canada/

Especially, those Indian students who have allegedly received similar fake admission letters from the same or other scrupulous ‘education agents’ in India.

This a problem that is growing significantly in Punjab, where the pretext of a new life abroad via studies is alluring innocent people to give their life savings to these so-called ‘agents’.