Deportation order that would force Indian international student to leave Canada delayed | CBC News

An Indian international student who was scheduled to be deported from Canada on Tuesday morning is welcoming a delay to his deportation order.

Lovepreet Singh is among a group of about 16 students who say their future in Canada is at risk after it was discovered that an agent allegedly gave them fake offer letters to a Canadian school.

“The deportation got delayed, but it’s not cancelled yet,” Singh told CBC Toronto on Tuesday.

“I’m happy that it got delayed because we had this struggle from a while and the mental situation is still not good.”

Singh said his lawyer advised him about the delay to the deportation order via email over the weekend.

Singh came to Canada in 2017 to attend Lambton College’s Mississauga campus, he says. Part of that process included hiring an immigration agent to help him through the hoops of applying to a Canadian school and immigrating to the country, he says, which resulted in an offer letter he used when entering the country. 

But when he got to Canada Singh says the college told him he wasn’t showing up in their system.

He tried to move on, getting a new study permit and completing a course at a different school in Montreal. But even after getting that second study permit, he says he was told he would be deported because of the allegedly fake offer letter he used when coming to the country. 

Singh camped outside a Canadian Border Services Agency office in Mississauga for several days this month to call for a review of his case, saying he and other students are victims, not criminals.

‘Fair amount of anxiety for my client,’ lawyer says

Singh’s lawyer, Naseem Mithoowani, said she was notified on Friday morning by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that the removal had been “administratively cancelled.

“But no one was able to tell us for how long or why, despite my inquiries,” Mithoowani told CBC Toronto.

“As such, Lovepreet’s removal appears to still be a possibility, although when it might be rescheduled, if at all, remains to be seen.

“As you can imagine, this creates a fair amount of anxiety for my client, who is grateful that he is not facing imminent deportation but whose future in Canada is far from certain.”

‘Inadmissibility case is still there,’ Singh says

Meanwhile, Singh says while he welcomes the delay to the deportation order, the matter is not over yet.

“All the students are stressed at the situation until unless these inadmissibility [cases] get revoked … so it’s been a very difficult situation right now.”

Singh said while he was the only one facing deportation on Tuesday, other students have similar cases that will eventually get to the point of a deportation order.

Last week a spokesperson for the CBSA told CBC News there are a number of active Immigration and Refugee Protection Act investigations into cases of misrepresentation. The act is federal legislation regulating immigration in Canada.

“Persons who misrepresent themselves and/or use fraudulent documentation to seek entry to Canada or to remain in Canada are contravening the IRPA and risk being removed from Canada,” Maria Ladouceur said in an email.

The immigration department is responsible for reviewing study permit applications, Ladouceur added.

In March, the CBC’s The Fifth Estate reported on the issue and other students who were affected.

The Fifth Estate goes undercover to reveal the pitch made in India by some recruitment agents, and their financial connections to colleges in Canada. Lured by the promise of a post-secondary education, and a chance to build a life here, thousands of foreign students are coming every year and are arriving to find what they were promised, and what their families paid for, often isn’t what awaits them.