‘The company made written misrepresentations in connection with immigration applications and submitted documents that falsely claimed applicants met criteria for approval’
Ontario employer Gandhi Immigration Ltd. has been fined $40,000 for altering immigration applications.
Following a guilty plea conducted virtually at the Provincial Offences Court in Toronto, the employer was also ordered to pay a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. This surcharge is credited to a special provincial fund that supports victims of crime.
Gandhi Immigration Ltd. represented two applicants to the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) under the Express Entry Skilled Trades stream — one in October 2022 and the other in March 2023.
The company was compensated for its services, and the company’s director — a member in good standing with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants — handled both applications.
For each application, the director altered job letters provided by the applicants to include job duties they had not performed but that met the OINP criteria. Both applications were subsequently refused.
“The company made written misrepresentations in connection with immigration applications and submitted documents that falsely claimed applicants met criteria for approval, contrary to section 29(2) (now section 15.1) of the Ontario Immigration Act,” said the Ontario government.
Section 29 of the Ontario Immigration Act states: A person or body is guilty of an offence if the person or body fails to comply with subsection 5(2), 6(2), 7(2) or 14(1), section 15 or 15.1, subsection 17(2) or a requirement or prohibition in the regulations. 2015, c. 8, s. 29(1); 2024, c. 41, Sched. 4, s. 4(1).
The company was fined $20,000 for each instance of misrepresenting an immigration application.
