The federal Immigration Department has banned foreign nationals in the country on a visitor visa from applying for a work permit since Wednesday. This express immigration route was being exploited by “malicious actors,” according to Ottawa, which says it wants to “preserve the integrity of the immigration system.”
The way had been opened in the middle of a pandemic. Since August 2020, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had allowed visitors unable to leave the country due to travel restrictions to apply for a permit from within Canada. From a temporary measure that was due to expire in 2025, this policy had become, four years later, an open door to abuse.
Thus, to “preserve the integrity of the immigration system,” according to the federal press release, Ottawa decreed without notice that any permit application made by a visitor would be automatically refused. This change is “effective immediately.” Applications submitted before August 28, 2024 will, however, continue to be processed.
“For two years, it had become ridiculous,” he comments. Duty immigration consultant Anthony Chiasson-Leblanc. The fraudulent misuse of this method of entering the country was well known in the immigration agency community. “IRCC rewarded cheaters of the system,” he explains.
First used by Mexican nationals, then more recently by Maghrebis, the scheme was based on lies to customs.
“People would arrive at the airport with their visitor permits. That was the first step. Then there was the customs officer. He had the ultimate authority to decide whether or not to enter the country. The customs officer could still question you about your reasons. You entered Canada with three suitcases, with a return ticket, but a refundable one… He asked where you were going. We would say “to a cousin’s” or something like that. We would say we were going to visit Niagara or Quebec. Once you entered, you would immediately try to find a job.”
The customs officer could well have refused entry to this false visitor, except that the latter had often memorized a “pre-speech” to respond correctly to the suspicions of the authorities. Who had paid for this speech? The worker. According to Mr. Chiasson-Leblanc, the worker assumed costs sometimes amounting to several tens of thousands of dollars. The prospect of subsequently using the lever of family reunification to facilitate the arrival of relatives could encourage several people to chip in to pay these large sums.
Visitor visa used to ‘cheat’
In its public notice, the RCC said it was “aware” that “malicious actors” were using the visitor visa to “deceive” authorities and “lead [ces ressortissants] to work in Canada without authorization.” The government is probably referring to “clandestine networks,” says Anthony Chiasson-Leblanc. “These are often people who have already been migrants and who have the trust of those in their country of origin.”
Not all of these visitor visa permit applications were false cases, far from it, he qualifies, but for him, the risk of fraud was “crystal clear.”
Several Canadian companies have benefited from these immigrants who are immediately available to work. Hiring someone who is already in the country is easier than hiring someone on the other side of the world, especially when you can avoid paying travel and administrative costs and you don’t have to wait months before receiving the green light from the government. An investigation by Duty revealed earlier this year that the visitor visa had allowed entry into Canada to several immigrants who ended up working for $10 an hour cleaning hospitals or serving food in CHSLDs.
Standard processes place the burden of the cost of immigration on the shoulders of the companies that hire. Closing this loophole is therefore “a good step in the right direction,” says Mr. Chiasson-Leblanc, although the government still has work to do to support proper immigration procedures. “Now, we need to reduce the delays [de délivrance des permis de travail]horribly too long in some countries, to avoid human tragedies.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.