Three men from India say their Canadian dreams have been crushed by an unlicensed immigration consultant.
Kamalpreet Singh, Amrit Gill and Gurjit Gill came to Canada on student visas and enrolled at Algonquin College in Ottawa.
They each paid Karnail Singh Ghadial $39,000 for help securing jobs that would allow them to stay as permanent residents.
Ghadial arranged offers for the men at a Howard Johnson hotel in Yorkton, Sask., that purportedly paid $18.48 per hour.
But Immigration Canada said the job offers were fraudulent. And not only that – the agency rejected the applications from the men and ruled them “inadmissible to Canada” for five years.
All of them are now back in India.
Singh says he believed the job offer was legitimate, and that Ghadial’s actions have ruined his life.
“What has happened to my life? Where has it gone?” said the now 23-year-old. “I did everything in good faith,” he added.
The men initially turned to police, who concluded there was enough evidence to lay a charge of “utter forged document” against Ghadial.
But Ghadial said he didn’t know the documents were fraudulent, and was only ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution to each of the men.
Unhappy with the result, the group tried to get a federal review of the case but were unsuccessful.
As a last resort, they turned to small claims court. The judge ruled Ghadial had provided false documents and the men finally got all of their money back.
“If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck,” said the judge.
What the men really want, however, is a chance to emigrate to Canada.
“I heard it’s a country where you get justice,” Singh said. “I didn’t get my justice.”
Meanwhile, public filings suggest Ghadial’s company, Impact Immigration Consultancy, is still active.
Under federal law, all immigration consultants must be registered with the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council. Ghadial is not.
Members of CTV News posed as would-be clients and were sent to a Toronto-area address but Ghadial didn’t show up for the meeting.
After calling him back to request comment, he said that he no longer consults and that his office is used for a matchmaking service.
