Brijesh Mishra, an immigration agent who stands accused of defrauding several Indian students by providing counterfeit college admission letters to obtain study permits for Canada, has denied the charges brought against him. Mishra, who has been detained in a British Columbia jail since June, has claimed that he is being made a scapegoat by a group of international students from India.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has charged Mishra with offering immigration advice without the necessary license, as well as with counseling individuals to provide false information or withhold information from authorities.
In March of this year, the CBSA issued deportation notices to hundreds of Indian students, primarily from Punjab, whose admission offer letters to educational institutions were found to be fake. Most of these students who now face deportation had submitted visa applications from 2018 to 2022 through the Jalandhar-based Education Migration Services, which was led by Mishra.
While initially entering Canada on a study visa, the fraudulent activity came to light when these students applied for permanent residency (PR). Mishra was reportedly charging each student between Rs 16 to Rs 20 lakh for all expenses, including admission fees at a prominent institution, Humber College.
Sumit Sen, a lawyer representing one of the student victims, stated that Mishra has not provided a satisfactory explanation of his activities in Canada, the accusations against him, or the charges brought against him by CBSA. An IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada) taskforce was formed in June to review the cases of affected students and graduates. Of the 103 cases reviewed by October 12, 2023, 63 were found to involve genuine students, while 40 were not.
To bolster the protection of genuine students against fraud, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, Marc Miller, has announced plans to implement several measures. Starting on December 1, post-secondary designated learning institutions (DLI) will be required to directly verify every applicant’s letter of acceptance with IRCC.
This enhanced verification process aims to protect prospective students from letter-of-acceptance fraud and to help them avoid problems similar to those faced by some students earlier this year as a result of fraud investigations, ensuring that study permits are only issued based on genuine letters of acceptance.
