Firms offering fake Canadian visas a concern: Slessor

The Consul General of Canada Scot Slessor, on Saturday, expressed concern over rising incidents of fake companies duping people by promising them Canadian visas. Slessor has taken up the matter with Chandigarh Police and asked them to take steps to avoid such incidents.

Slessor told The Indian Express: “A number of incidents of fake visa companies have come to my notice and despite police measures to check such incidents, fresh cases are being reported. The crooked visa consultants are a real concern. They are using the name of the Canadian Consulate General office, impersonating the officials and promising people visas,” he said.

He added that his office will work closely with Chandigarh Police to ascertain veracity of fake cases. “While the positive trend is that a number of people from Punjab and Chandigarh are travelling to Canada on genuine visas, the crooked visa consultants are promising people study and work visas,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh Police said that have taken several steps to eradicate the “menace of fake visas” like asking companies to provide details to police. Officials said they have notified a list of genuine immigration agents in the city, “There are at least 180 such agents who are functioning in Chandigarh.”

“A special investigation team (SIT) was constituted to focus on probing immigration cases and its work has resulted in the decline in number of fake visas. The special investigation team has now been disbanded,” said an official of the economic offences wing (EOW) of the Chandigarh Police.