Fake letter leaves Nigerian international student without status, asked to leave Canada

Lola Akinlade had a big smile on her face as she walked onto the stage at Nova Scotia Community College that day in 2019, her new social services diploma in hand.

But deep down she was worried.

“The happiness wasn’t deep inside,” she said in a recent interview near her home in Middle Sackville, N.S.

A few weeks before his graduation, the international student from Nigeria received a letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

It was said that one of the documents she entered Canada with in 2016 was false, and she was subsequently asked to explain herself.

Akinlade said she was unaware of the allegation before IRCC informed her, but it has left her and her family without immigration status in Canada and with little to fall back on if they return to Nigeria.

Akinlade said she was devastated to realise she had obtained her study permit using a false document.

“That was the beginning of my trauma.”

Statistics released by IRCC to CBC and the experiences of people working in the field suggest that there may be many more international students in a similar situation in Canada.

Since IRCC launched a new process to screen international student admissions letters in December 2023, more than 9,000 examples of fake letters have been found, suggesting that Akinlade’s case is not unique.

Akinlade wants IRCC to re-examine her case, claiming she was the victim of a “criminal agent” who sent her a fake acceptance letter to a Canadian school.

“Please look at my file,” she said. “I just want this resolved.”

Collaborated with agent

Akinlade began thinking about studying in Canada in 2015. She was working for a pharmaceutical company in Lagos as a medical sales representative with a business degree from a Nigerian university.

At an office outside Lagos, she met a man who said he worked as an immigration consultant and would guide her through the process of becoming an international student by applying for a master’s degree in business administration.

Akinlade said she did not speak to the agent about a specific university and only explained that she wanted to study at a high-quality Canadian institution.

Akinlade said she gave the agent documents such as her passport and university transcripts, along with payment. A few months later, he gave her a study permit to enter Canada, plane tickets and an acceptance letter to the University of Regina.

Akinlade flew to Canada in late December 2016, thinking she would start her classes in January 2017.

However, she said that while she was on a layover in Winnipeg on her way to Regina, she received a call from the agent telling her that there were no spots available at the university and that she would have to be put on the waiting list.

“I said my main goal was to come here to study. I don’t want to be on the waiting list.”

Akinlade began searching for a new school and program on her own, staying with relatives in Winnipeg until she was accepted into the Nova Scotia Community College for Social Services to start in September 2017. She said she decided to switch to social services because it better aligned with the work she had already done in the medical field.

Akinlade says she didn’t contact the University of Regina directly until two years later, when she received a letter from IRCC stating that the admission letter was fake.

“I was a little skeptical (after getting the IRCC letter) because I thought it wasn’t real, like a miscommunication or something,” she said. “So I immediately contacted (the) University of Regina.

“And then I learned the truth.”

Agent says letter came from another company

Akinlade said she has had little contact with the agent in Nigeria since arriving in Canada.

But CBC exchanged text messages with Babatunde Isiaq Adegoke, the agent Akinlade says he used to help her apply for a Canadian university and study permit.

Adegoke told CBC that he guided Akinlade through the application process to come to Canada.

He admitted that he gave Akinlade the admission letter from the University of Regina. But he said the letter was given to him by a company called Success Academy Education Consult which he hired. He said it was based in Ejigbo town but has since moved to an unknown location.

He said he was surprised when he found out the admission letter was fake and denied telling Akinlade she would have to be waitlisted at the University of Regina.

Adegoke told CBC he no longer offered study permit services, had no contact information for Success Academy Education Consult and had not done business with the company since 2018. He declined to be interviewed via video chat to learn more.

CBC could not find a business matching Adegoke’s description. CBC called and emailed businesses with similar names, but none of the business owners said they recognized Lola Akinlade’s letter.

No immigration status

Akinlade lost her study permit in Canada because of the fake letter and was also denied it when she applied for a work permit for further education and a temporary residence permit.

An IRCC staff member wrote to her in March 2023 that the department believed she knew the document was fake, “on the balance of probabilities.”

Her husband, Samson Akinlade, and eight-year-old Nigerian-born son, David, joined her in Nova Scotia in 2018 and have now lost their temporary resident status. Their youngest son was born in Canada in 2021 and, though a Canadian citizen, has no health coverage because of his parents’ status.

The three oldest members of the family have been asked to leave the country voluntarily. They cannot work or go to school.

“We’ve been getting by on our savings and I don’t know how long we can keep that up,” she said. “It’s really, really hard.”

Akinlade said the family sold their home in Nigeria to raise the tens of thousands of dollars needed for her Canadian tuition. She and her husband worked in Nova Scotia as caregivers before losing their immigration status.

“We have already invested our lives in Canada, so there is nothing to fall back on (in Nigeria),” she said.

‘Rogue agents’ a common concern

According to Akinlade’s lawyer, Amanat Sandhu, the family has filed a humanitarian application to be allowed to stay.

Sandhu said that at her downtown Toronto business, she often encounters what she describes as “rogue agents” who provide immigrants with misinformation.

“Generally speaking, there are a lot of people who get into a difficult situation where they trust an agent and then that agent doesn’t perform as they should,” she said.

Canadian schools are also concerned about the actions of these officers, said Graham Barber, deputy director of international relations at Universities Canada.

Barber said that in his more than 10-year career, he’s seen a “handful” of times when students actually showed up on a college campus thinking they were enrolled when they weren’t.

According to him, the most common method is to quickly ‘transfer’ students from a university to a private vocational college.

“These agents later in the process exchanged some of those admission letters and used the good name of a university to increase the chances of the student getting a study permit,” he said.

Last year, the federal government instituted a new vetting process with Canadian schools to verify genuine acceptance letters. Barber said it’s working well, but his members are concerned about their brands being used in this way.

“Any university whose logo is used without their permission, whose brand and reputation is misused without their knowledge, is incredibly, incredibly concerning,” he said.

IRCC publishes figures

The new acceptance letter verification process started on December 1, 2023. Before it started, The department acknowledged that many students had come to Canada “genuinely” to study, but that some who were aware of the fake letters had “no intention whatsoever” of studying.

Between that day and July 1, IRCC says it intercepted 9,175 letters that were never sent by a Canadian school.

These 9,175 letters came from a total of 361,718 letters checked by IRCC and the schools.

These letters “may be an indication of fraud,” IRCC wrote in a statement, but each letter must be checked by an agent.

The department declined to make anyone available for an interview and agreed to answer questions only by email.

According to the organization, the focus is “on identifying perpetrators, not punishing victims” of fraud.

In response to questions about Akinlade’s case and why IRCC believes she was aware of the fake letter, IRCC referred back to its official’s decision based on the “balance of probabilities”.

“Applicants are responsible for all information on their application,” IRCC wrote, noting that Akinlade had been given the opportunity to address the agent’s concerns.

The burden of proof lies with the applicant

Sandhu says it is not clear to her why IRCC thinks Akinlade knew the letter was fake.

“If we’re going on suspicion, I think most officers are very skeptical when it comes to applicants who claim they’ve been the victim of a rogue officer.”

Sandhu acknowledged that Canadian immigration rules place the responsibility for all information in the application on the applicant.

“Even if you have an agent involved, you are still expected to be aware of everything,” she said.

Akinlade said she has learned a “lesson” about finding a trustworthy agent who can help her, but she believes that if IRCC reviews her case again, it will find that she was not complicit in the fake letter.

Her lawyer will file her humanitarian claim with IRCC in the coming weeks, but the claim does not give her the right to remain in the country, and it is unclear how many months it will take to process.

“I really want to be investigated,” she said, adding that the whole experience had been “traumatic” for her family.

“This is not something I pray for my enemy to experience.”