How sham marriages fueled India’s foreign student influx to Canada
· Toronto Sun
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OTTAWA — Closing a troublesome loophole allowing international students to bring spouses to Canada on open work permits gave government officials a glimpse into widespread “marriage of convenience” scams in India, internal government documents suggest.
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Internal emails from Canada’s High Commission in New Delhi, obtained via an access-to-information request, show how the now-closed loophole allowed prospective foreign students to enter into transactional marriages that granted their “spouse” open work permits — a scheme openly advertised in Indian newspaper ads and online dating apps.
“Given the high cost of studying and living in Canada, many Indian applicants relied on marriages of convenience to secure financial support in exchange for spousal open work permits,” read an excerpt from an email from Han Duan, a Canadian diplomatic official in Delhi, to two IRCC officials.
“This practice was widely advertised in local newspapers and on dating apps.”
2024 policy change ended loophole
The emails were obtained by Vancouver-based immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, who told the Toronto Sun it was “no surprise” to see organized criminal activity infiltrate that portion of the study permit program, once big money and permanent residency promises entered the equation.
“Unscrupulous overseas agents were promising the moon,” said Kurland, who also edits the immigration policy periodical Lexbase . “They said ‘permanent residence is in your hands if you get your study permit, and we’ll take care of that pathway for you.'”
Participants were promised they’d be able to easily flip their study permits into work permits, Kurland said — allowing them to get a job and apply for permanent residence.
“It was a multi-year plan, and the sad part was most often financed by the young person’s family,” he added.
“In some cases, they literally sold the farm to put their kid in Canada.”
Under the scheme, entering into “marriages of convenience” would allow the non-student “spouse” to help fund the student’s education and living costs.
This served as a financial pipeline for thousands of Indian foreign student applicants hoping to study at Canadian colleges and universities, while giving their non-student spouses full access to the Canadian labour market.
This pipeline collapsed, however, when the federal government closed the loophole in 2024, when then-Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced broad reforms to the international student program, including an end to the Spousal Open Work Permit (SOWP) program for undergraduate students.
In further reforms announced at the beginning of this year, only students enrolled in master’s programs over 16 months in duration are entitled to spousal work permits.
Closing loophole curtailed student permit applications
Eliminating this loophole, Duan wrote in their email, caused a drop in the number of student permit applications from Indian nationals.
“Since the introduction of the student cap and various policy measures over the past year, New Delhi has observed a decline not only in the total number of Indian Study Permit (SP) applicants but also in the overall quality of applicants,” Duan wrote, who also attributed the drop to policy changes that prevents students from securing study permits to public post-secondary institutions but later transferring to lower-cost and less-reputable private colleges.
Duan noted that other nations who implemented similar policy changes also saw similar trends.
“Following the introduction of restrictions on spousal OWPs (open work permits,) many Indian SP (student permit) applicants have shifted to countries that still permit spousal visas, with significant increases reported in Germany, Sweden, and Finland,” they wrote.
“Similar trends have been observed in Ireland, France, and Italy, while Australia, New Zealand, and the UK have reported declines in Indian SP applications after implementing similar spousal restrictions.”
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