Student can’t blame consultant, tribunal hears
Indian fighting deportation says he was unaware college admission letter was fake
An international student who got into Canada thanks to a fake college admission letter cannot be absolved of his responsibility by blaming an unscrupulous consultant, a tribunal heard.
“The applicant is responsible for the content of an application for which they sign,” Nathan Reid, lawyer for Canada Border Services Agency, told a hearing to determine whether the student can stay in this country, on Thursday.
“It is too easy to later claim innocence and blame a third party.”
Amritraj Singh Batth arrived from India in 2018. It was only years later that he was flagged by the border agency to be inadmissible because the document he had used to obtain his study permit was determined to be fraudulent.
If that finding is upheld by the independent immigration tribunal, he will have to leave Canada and will be banned from re-entering this country for five years.
The 25-year-old is among a group of international students from India who applied for student visas through the same agent, and are facing the same battle to stay in the country. Some have been in Canada since 2017, have completed their studies, been issued work permits and had been on the path to permanent residence.
In earlier testimony, Batth maintained he was unaware the initial admission letter to Humber College provided by Brijesh Mishra, owner of EMSA, a consulting firm in Jalandhar, was fraudulent.
“If I would have gotten to know prior to coming to Canada, I would never have entered Canada … I never intended to come to Canada illegally. I wanted to have proper legal documentation to come here,” Batth had told the tribunal under cross-examination.
Batth, who is now a truck driver, testified he was advised upon arrival by the consultant not to attend the school and later enrolled himself at CDI College in Montreal, through the help of another consultant in Brampton. Batth’s lawyer, Jaswant Mangat, has argued there was nothing on the study permit that necessitated that Batth must attend Humber College.
However, in the final submission, counsel for the government stated that the web design and programming diploma from CDI College and subsequent postgraduate work permit Batth received were “downstream” of the misrepresentation under the bogus document.
“The allegation being levied against Mr. Batth is not that he has failed to study at the college that he was accepted to,” Reid told adjudicator Katrina Henrique.
“Rather the allegation is that of misrepresentation, alleging that he misrepresented on the process that led to the issuance of that study permit in the first place.”
Calling the tribunal’s task clear and straightforward, Reid said all the adjudicator must decide is whether Batth was a foreign national who directly or indirectly misrepresented or withheld the facts that led to the error of receiving a study permit. “The jurisprudence on this is quite clear. The intent is not a requirement under the legislation,” said Reid, urging the tribunal to issue an exclusion order against Batth.
Earlier Thursday, Batth’s lawyer told the hearing that he was unable to serve a summon to Mishra, the education agent, despite enlisting the help of the police and a detective agency in India. Mangat had asked for more time to prepare a final submission to the tribunal, but the request was denied.
The hearing resumes Friday.