About 34 Immigration officials from New Zealand deployed locally as well as overseas have been accused of fraud and corruption and are under investigation for wrongful conduct. This has come about after the termination of seven immigration officials this year. Of these, three of the officials were involved in the processing of the visas.

According to Jonathan Coleman, the Immigration Minister for New Zealand, about 32 allegations are being investigations by the department. These investigations are looking into the conduct and performance of the immigration staff. With this, two new allegations have come to surface.

Of the above, about 18 allegations are associated with the officials deployed in New Zealand. Another 16 of the staff members who are alleged to be involved are stationed at the branch offices abroad.

In the last one year, about sixty allegations pertaining to corruption, dishonesty and fraud have been charged on immigration officials. Of these, 10 allegations were confirmed where as another twenty seven were not proved. The rest twenty three are still under the process of investigation. Of the seven officials who were sacked on charges of misconduct, six were based in New Zealand while one of officials was in New Delhi.

As per Nigel Bickle, the spokesman for Immigration New Zealand, most of the cases here pertained to a conflict of interest along with the non-disclosure of interests when it came to the applications of friends and family. It requires a lot of work in order to clear and bring about clear standards of behavior and conduct.

It has been found that the identity of a dead American teenager was being used by a fraudster who had been living in South Wales for 10 years. William Victor Bernson III had been living on a fake identity. He has been imprisoned for 16 months in Swansea Prison. He has been charged for walking into Britain as Greg Smith who had died in the 1970s in a car accident.

After Bernson is done serving in the prison, he would be deported back to the United States. After investigating his past, it came to light that he had been involved in fraudulent activities before also. He had duped the families of the Dunblane massacre victims. He even tried to get Amazon – the Internet giant to pay him $1 million. He had also been imprisoned previously for fraud and he had gone under four different names. His case is not being investigated by the FBI. Bernson was living with his Greek wife and his three children for ten years before he was caught by the American authorities.

With American officials cooping him, the UK Border Agency was notified of the same. According to the Head, Cardiff Immigration Crime Team, UK Border Agency, Steve Evans, Bernson was involved in serious fraud where in he used the identity of a dead person to make a life for himself in the UK. With the help of the American authorities, they were able to disclose his fraud.

Bernson is 49 years of age and has managed many firms dealing with online PR. In his defense, he said that he is an online entrepreneur and one-man think tank.

With  the rising  fraud cases of married couple for obtaining Canadian visa has alarmed the Canadian government and they are planning to review their immigration laws for the newly married couples who apply for Canadian visa.

Jason Kenney, minister of Canadian immigration said that there is a planning to make the rules and regulations of Canadian marriage visa strict. This step is taken to prevent any fraud or cheating in lure of obtaining the Canadian visa through the status of one’s spouse.

There are some countries that are aware of such possibilities of fraud or cheating. So before giving them the visa they ask the newly sponsored couples to live for three months of probationary period to confirm if they are genuinely married or not

Recently a case of a Canadian woman came into light in which the lady was cheated by her husband who used her to obtain the Canadian visa. She met her husband when she was on a holiday trip to India. She is requesting that her husband’s visa should be removed and he must be deported from Canada back to his own country. She was cheated by her husband who married her just for the visa and moved to Canada without informing her. To add to her plight, she is now being asked for divorce by people with whom her husband is living and hand over the money to them.

Canadian immigration minister Kennedy said that it is very difficult to judge the legality of the marriage as initially the spouse claims that the person is my legitimate husband or wife but later on who can cheat who remains unknown. But Canadian government is now on it’s way to take some really serious and sensible steps to prevent such fraud marriages to occur.

Actor Vijayakumar committed a visa spam and hence faced a recent arrest by the Kalamassery police. He has been blamed for committing visa related fraud, hence taking money from people by offering them visas for various countries.

The south Indian actor has been blamed for taking a heavy price of Rs 7 lakh from two different clients and promising them visas for the United Kingdom and United States of America.

Reports say that Thiruvananthapauram resident Louise D’Cruz gave Rs.3.5 lakh to the accused, asking him to provide him with a US visa. The amount was never collected directly, rather provided in separate portions starting from June 2007. The matter of spam came into existence when the victim lodged a complaint with the Kalamassery police station in the year 2009. The police confirmed that the actor was unable to commit his promise, hence failing to provide the visa on time. In another scam, the actor also collected a heavy price of Rs 4.19 lakh from a resident of Kochi, who he promised to give a UK visa right in his hand!

The later victim, Muraleedharan complained that the movies star failed to fulfill the promise after collecting the money from him. Therefore, a complain was filed against him.

Also, the actor has been accused of a crime related to theft of Rs. 25 lakh but investigations are under their way as no charges have been proved yet. He has been living in his sister’s place since his involvement in the theft case.

Of late, there have been many instances in Canada where unauthentic immigration consultants cheated on or trying to mislead immigrants. They are not going by the rules and regulations set by the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants. In the most recent case, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has identified a Windsor immigration consultant who has cheated on many immigrants and charged up to $100,000 in order to submit petitions to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

The consultant Francesco Salvatore (Sam) Burgio is not legally permitted to provide services, still he continued to do so. He held a membership with Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, but his membership was cancelled in 2006. The police has already identified more than ten victims of the consultant. Reportedly, he charged in between $2,000 and $100,000 just to submit prospective immigrants’ applications.

Currently, Canada has a total of 1,600 certified immigration consultants. The presence of immoral consultants and their illegal activities are harmful for both prospective immigrants and the image of the country’s immigration system. Canada’s immigration minister has appreciated the efforts of the associated that have tried to investigate the unauthentic consultants. He also urged the government and other law enforcement agencies to work together and identify immoral consultants.

Unregulated immigration consultants with their mistake and huge charges are posing difficulty for the prospective immigrants. There have been cases in Canada, as well as in the United States where people’s applications were not being submitted or had errors, because of which the dreams and future plans of their clients were shattered. Thus, it is very important for anyone intending to immigrate to any country should go through a background check and legal status before hiring an immigration consultant!

According to Universities UK, the student visa rules for overseas students intending to move to UK to study in the UK universities are of poor quality. Hence UK Universities has recommended the educational institutions in the UK not to apply for a “highly trusted sponsor” as the UK student visa rules are of bad quality and were implemented without any prior conference.

It is known that the “highly trusted sponsor” came into act in order to bar the undocumented applicants from entering the country and remove the chances of any fraud in the immigration policies.

The educational institutions in the UK have been provided the deadline till June 30th to apply for this scheme, but they have been told by the UK universities to think about applying for the scheme all over again.

Critics believe that the newly proposed scheme would not do much benefit to the UK universities, fearing that it would rather damage the reputations of the universities, provided they fail to qualify the standards or find themselves unable to match the status which is renewed on a yearly basis.

In order to gain eligibility for the scheme, it is mandatory for the sponsors to make sure that a minimum of three per cent of overseas students fail to finish their courses, and the number should not exceed the limit. In addition to that, university staff is required to go for an in-depth background analysis on the applicants intending to study in the universities.

In an attempt to tighten the security level, Canadian Immigration is intending to come out with UK-Style e-passports, a measure which would ensure the rigidity of the immigration system as a whole.

Commencing from next year onwards, prospective applicants/Canadians intending to live as PR in the country would get passports engrossed with chips which would contain their data in the form of digital identities. Otherwise, the overall appearance is same like the older one.

The name, gender, age and other additional information, normally present on the passport would now be hidden into that small RFID chip, making it difficult for pseudo applicants to get involve in any fake cases. In addition to the mentioned information, the digital image of the main applicant would be encoded on the passport to add that extra security aspect to it.

The move has received mixed response till now. Some believe that not much would improve as far as the security facets are concerned, while others who back this decision believe that the step would minimize the risk of fraud and tampering cases.

Also, the validity of the new E-passports would extend to 10 years rather than the present 5 years. The applicant would be given the choice of opting out of the two! The cost of the e-passports is yet to be decided.

According to Passport Canada, the move would allow the country follow the international standards and hike its security measures in a major way.

According to a Pakistani investigating agency, more than 3000 Pakistani passports have been missing, courtesy British High Commission in Pakistan. Also, the latter has affirmed that they have misplaced only 150 travel documents, contrary to what they have been blamed for.

Officials from Pakistan are also blaming the theft of visa stickers from the passports, hence complicating the situation even further. The incidents even point at speculations that some officials from both Pakistan and British authorities might be involved in the scandal, otherwise it would not have been possible that 3000 passports miss out from the authorities without any hint.

Last year, British High Commission planned to send the concerned passports to Abu Dhabi for further approval. According to an investigating officer, there are chances that the BHC were unable to coordinate the applications forms which were received from the BHC, hence resulting into the hustle and bustle of missing passports.

There are fears that the missing passports can get in Al-Qaeda’s hands, leading to further complications and terror attacks.

Also, some applicants have complained that their passports are missing the stickers, hence strengthening the chances of fraud in a majority of cases. While others are complaining that the stickers from their passports were removed while they were in Federal Investigations Agency’s custody.

The British High Commission would need to provide strict answers to all these questions, provided the allegations turn out to be true.

It seems Canada’s easygoing approach and welcoming nature towards the immigrants is giving the country a hard time! So, the question arises here- ‘Is Canada too soft on refugees from outside countries?’ Every year, thousands of refugees find shelter in the country. Canada happens to be the most welcoming developed nation in the world in terms of accepting refugees.

At times, it is found that many of the refugee applicants are not genuine. The applicants namely from Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan among many countries often end up disintegrate the Canadian immigration and refugee system. Many such cases of course question the country’s mild immigration laws that allow anyone to enter the country and file for refugee claim on such grounds that are not convincing or genuine enough!

But, now the time has come to address these issues for the sake of the country itself! Yes, in response to the increasing cases of bogus refugees in Canada, the country’s immigration department is going to come up with a new law. The law will keep an eye on the fraudulent refugee cases.

According to Canadian immigration minister, Jason Kenney, the new law to be amended would make the country’s immigration and refugee system faster and effective, recognizing the real refugee applicants and removing the fake ones from the country.

The changes to the legislation will also challenge immoral immigration advisers and consultants who guide the applicants to commit fraud, thereby breaking the country’s immigration regulations. It is often found that many outsiders come up with refugee claims in order to obtain a status in Canada, as guided by their consultants!

A Florida Language Institute recently got involved in a huge Student Visa scandal. The owner and co-operators of the institute illegally assisted overseas nationals in getting Student Visas. The irony is that the concerned applicants never went to their classes ever!

Lydia Menocal, the Director of the institution, along with another co-worker was involved in the scandal for the past 3years! It has been speculated that the duo along with other members of the Institution made a heavy amount of $2.4 million and the money is still on the list of counting! The staff members charged this money from the overseas students applying for the Student Visas. However, it is still not clear as to how much the officials charged from each student.

It was a racket which used to work secretly and help those applicants get Student Visas who have never attended a single class. The officials at the Institute were also charged of falsifying the documentation and providing fake evidences!

In addition, almost eighty-one students have been arrested, who were trying to get Student Visas without fulfilling the mandatory requirements. The U.S. authorities have confirmed that none of the students had any links with terrorism, but investigations are going on to check their backgrounds.

U.S. Jeffrey Sloman confirmed that they still don’t know what exactly they were involved in!

Also, out of the 200 students studying in the Institution, only 5% out of them were speculated to have attended the classes.