Canadian marriage visa scams concern immigration officials

December 02 2009 by Liam Clifford

The Canadian immigration department is growing increasingly concerned about the rising number of fake marriages taking place.

The false marriages are being used to gain marriage visas for immigrants who would otherwise be unable to live in Canada legally, and sometimes involve organised criminals.

Claudette Deschênes, the assistant deputy minister of Canadian immigration, says the involvement of organised crime is concerning the department. She explains, "it's a trend that we're starting to see and the department is concerned that there is organised fraud around that movement.”

Deschênes was speaking to the House of Commons on the subject in response to enquiries from New Democrat MP Olivia Chow, who asked why almost half of all spousal visa applications from certain countries were being refused.

Chow asked whether the high refusal rate was due to these applications being fraudulent. Deschênes confirmed the concerns, stating, “we're looking at that. It's a new trend, but we are concerned that it's an organised movement.”

Jason Kenney, the Canadian immigration minister, says the issue is being monitored by the government. He stated, "globally we do have a problem of marriages of convenience, commercialised, fake marriages to get into Canada."

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