Canada Puts a Pause on Deportations Over Acceptance Letter Scam

Some international students were given fraudulent acceptance letters by education agents. Now Canada's pausing the deportation of these students.

The Canadian federal government has announced a pause on deportations for international students who were scammed by education agents, given fraudulent documents to allow them to study in Canada.

Dozens of international students received deportation orders from the government, but those orders are now on hold while federal investigators explore exactly what happened, and where the falsified documents came from. The exact number of affected students isn't known, but could include several hundred people, according to the Immigration Minister.

Task force investigating study permit fraud

The government has set up a task force dedicated to investigating this issue. The goal is to find the source of the fraud — not to punish students who have been negatively affected by fake documents.

The exact dimensions of these cases are still to be measured, but the risks are real: some affected students have already received their deportation orders.

Eight-week stay on deportation, to be extended to three years

Students who have received an order of deportation have already got an eight-week exemption: a temporary residence visa that lets them stay in Canada while their cases are reviewed. Students can continue to stay and work in Canada while the review's ongoing.

Once a case is confirmed to be legitimate, the temporary visa will be extended to three years — plenty of time for each student to decide what's next. This means a given student has a genuine intent to study in Canada, and was completely unaware of fraudulent activity behind the scenes.

Who's at fault?

As we discussed last year, it's easy to fall victim to a scam perpetrated by agents who stand to earn a commission for every student they enrol in a Canadian college.

While no official answers are available yet, some victims of the fraud told CBC News they felt scammed by immigration agents. The government's investigation will explore how many students actually attended school, and whether anyone knew of suspicious activity beforehand. Read more about immigration scams here.

Students who have already been deported as a result of these scams could potentially return to Canada after the investigation is complete, but word on this is unconfirmed as yet.

These cases are a wake-up call for the federal government, which is now working to create "a stronger system" to address this type of fraud more effectively in future.