Up to 800 Chinese migrants to Canada may be expelled following an investigation into the largest case of immigration fraud in the country's history.
The migrants are thought to be involved with immigration fraud conducted by Chinese citizen Wang Xun and his nine accomplices who together acted as unlicensed immigration agents.
Of the 800, 200 currently face losing their Canadian citizenship, 120 may soon lose their permanent resident status and 500 are still under investigation, said the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported Tuesday.
Wang, 47, established two unlicensed immigration companies called New Can Consulting Ltd and Wellong International Investments Ltd in Vancouver and charged 1,200 clients for more than $10 million in services.
In 2015, Wang was sentenced to seven years behind bars and was ordered to pay a fine of $671,400. His appeals have been rejected. Three of his accomplices have been charged, three are awaiting trial and three are on the run.
"A lot of these people have actually made a significant contribution to Canadian society. All of the circumstances have to be looked at to determine whether booting them out of Canada is the right thing," said Andrew Wlodyka, the lawyer representing New Can client Li Pei Jia.
Li had his residency status revoked after Canadian authorities ruled New Can had falsified stamps on his passport to make it appear as though he had spent enough time in Canada to be granted residency.
The new immigration agent of another New Can client surnamed Lin blames the language barrier.
"My client did not understand English, so they trusted the agent. The agent asked [him] to sign, and [he] signed," Eric Leung said.
