Chandigarh, January 16, 2009 — During a meeting with Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, the Chief Minister of Punjab, Prakash Singh Badal, committed to step up efforts to combat fraudulent immigration consultants who operate out of Chandigarh.
“Our Canadian officials in Chandigarh are regularly dealing with fraudulent documents produced by unregistered immigration consultants, including fake passports, fake endorsement letters from Canadian Members of Parliament, fake death certificates and many more,” said Minister Kenney. “Although the approval rate for temporary visas has improved over the last year, the large number of unauthentic documents being submitted to the Chandigarh mission is a very serious problem for the integrity of Canada’s immigration system. I am pleased that the Chief Minister of Punjab says he will act on this commitment to crack down on unscrupulous immigration consultants, and I look forward to assessing the success of this promise later this year.”
“The real victims of fraudulent immigration consultants are prospective immigrants themselves, with many paying $12,000 to $15,000 – money they can ill afford – for fraudulent documents,” continued Minister Kenney.
Canada is the only country to operate a visa office in Chandigarh. The Chandigarh office of the Canadian High Commission opened in 1997 and first began issuing visas in 2004 after former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien attended the opening of the Consulate General of Chandigarh in 2003.
For further information (media only) on the Minister’s activities, please contact:
Alykhan Velshi
Minister’s Office
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Alykhan.Velshi@cic.gc.ca
Media Relations Unit
Communications Branch
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-952-1650
CIC-Media-Relations@cic.gc.ca
