Twice in two weeks, Surrey, B.C., immigration guide Neera Agnihotri found her agency was listed on employment paperwork for overseas employees supposedly certain for B.C.
The one drawback: she had by no means heard of any of the possible employees or the companies wanting to rent them.
“I used to be like, ‘No, this isn’t our consumer,'” Agnihotri says, reviewing the paperwork and highlighting indicators of forgery.
“You’ll be able to see somewhat little bit of alteration within the font,” Agnihotri factors out on one. On the opposite, there is a typo on the title of her agency, Agnihotri Immigration Consulting Inc.
The paperwork have been cast Labour Market Influence Assessments, or LMIAs. Employers sometimes obtain the paperwork from Employment and Social Growth Canada (ESDC) in the event that they wish to rent a overseas employee. They’re meant to point out {that a} overseas employee is required to fill a particular job.
LMIA-supported positions may also improve the employee’s possibilities of turning into everlasting residents in Canada. Employees additionally must display they’ve requisite expertise and language proficiency earlier than they obtain a piece allow from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
However lately, fraudsters have used the documents to prey on foreign nationals who’re keen to pay tens of hundreds of {dollars} for them beneath the false promise they’re going to legally be allowed to dwell and work in Canada.
“There are scammers, quite a few scammers on the market on the earth, who’re making these pretend LMIAs and promoting them to unsuspecting employees who’ve this glimmer of hope that they could have the ability to get a job in Canada,” stated Cassandra Fultz, an Ontario-based immigration guide.
Earlier CBC investigations have uncovered scammers promoting fraudulent LMIAs for as much as $45,000.
“The issue is, when somebody is determined, when somebody actually desires that job or that potential to work in Canada, they’re keen to imagine it,” stated Fultz.
A Surrey immigration guide has raised issues after discovering her agency was listed in fraudulent employment paperwork often called Labour Market Influence Assessments (LMIAs). These paperwork are required by companies in search of to rent overseas employees and should be obtained from the federal authorities. Nonetheless, as Jon Hernandez experiences, scammers are promoting counterfeit paperwork to overseas nationals, falsely promising them the possibility to dwell and work in Canada.
Solid LMIA
In Agnihotri’s case, the LMIAs have been delivered to her consideration by neighbouring corporations that acquired them on behalf of the employee in March.
Her agency, Agnihotri Immigration Consulting Inc., was unwittingly listed as a third-party consultant on behalf of the employers, an Okanagan development firm and an Abbotsford trucking enterprise — neither of which she had ever heard of.
Each companies denied any data of the solid LMIA. CBC Information has reviewed the paperwork which Agnihotri has submitted to ESDC for investigation.
Agnihotri suspects earlier official LMIAs have been replicated by a foul actor and are actually getting used as a template for pretend paperwork. She fears there may very well be extra cast paperwork along with her firm’s title on them circulating with out her data.
“It is fairly regarding, as a result of I’ve solely seen two, and I am one particular person, one firm,” stated Agnihotri. “We do not understand how vastly that is occurring.”
ESDC instructed CBC Information that it doesn’t publicly launch figures on LMIA fraud.
Rising challenges
Based on the Faculty of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC), any occasion the place a potential worker is requested to pay for an LMIA is taken into account fraud.
The group, which represents licensed consultants, says it is combating “unauthorized practitioners” who pose as licensees and attempt to promote immigration paperwork.
“In a collection of latest enforcement blitzes, we have now shut down greater than 5,000 net pages and social media pages promoting [unauthorized practitioners],” stated an ESDC spokesperson in an announcement.
As Canada tightens its path to everlasting residency, extra immigration schemes are showing on-line, providing pretend jobs to overseas employees in trade for as much as $45,000.
Cassandra Fultz, a registered guide at Toronto’s Doherty Fultz Immigration in Toronto, says her workplace routinely will get calls and emails from folks asking if their LMIA paperwork are actual or pretend.
“It is by no means actual,” stated Fultz. “A few of them look fairly good, they’ve numerous the main points appropriate, however some are just a bit bit off. And a few of them look completely ridiculous.”
“Persons are forking out a whole lot, and actually hundreds of {dollars} for these LMIAs, they usually’re not actual. They’re simply out that cash,” stated Fultz.
Fultz says scammers will typically impersonate representatives from official corporations, so she is asking on Ottawa to step in and examine fraud claims introduced ahead by immigration consultants who danger dropping credibility.
“Regulated professionals have probably the most at stake. We have now probably the most to lose,” stated Fultz.
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