Fake Chinese chefs arriving in Ontario

TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUN,

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 09, 2011

TORONTO -  Canadian Embassy officials in Beijing have turned up the heat on Chinese nationals posing as chefs to fraudulently obtain visas to enter Canada under a provincial work program.

The so-called Chinese dim sum and gourmet cooks use phoney letters they claim are from Canadian restaurants offering them a job because of their skill.

The letters are given to embassy officials to obtain a visa under a provincial nominee program since there is a demand for the cooks in Ontario.

Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by lawyer Richard Kurland show smugglers are abusing the program to slip people into Canada.

"Beijing has experienced a consistent incidence of fraud for cases submitted under the provincial nominee category," said a report that was drafted by immigration official, Francesca Imperato.

The April 2010 "Fraud in the Provincial Nominee Program in Beijing" report said in 2009, about 129 cases were refused visas due to misrepresentation.

"The most common occupation where fraud was identified was that of cooks with a total of 36 fraudulent cases," Imperato said.

The report said visa officers in Beijing were busy in 2009 by intercepting eight bogus welders, six fake electricians and three phoney business managers, many of whom had letters of employment promised by some Ontario firms that did not exist.

"In 2009 the misrepresentation was determined as a result of field investigations an or by telephone verifications," the report said, adding the remaining fraudulent cases involved lower skilled occupations.

The immigration scam involving phoney chefs first surfaced in 1998 when Canadian Embassy staffers in Bejing began encountering a rash of fraudulent cooking certificates.

Many of the chefs arrive here and claim refugee status or head to the U.S., officials said.

Kurland said its about time Ottawa crack down on the illegal workers.

"Immigration officials can check a degree or diploma but they can't check if someone is a dim sum chef," Kurland said. "The workers are being given a heads up that the government is checking their documents."

About 1,000 foreign workers are brought to work yearly in Ontario under the nominee program.

Canada also requires police officers, journalists, machinists, truck drivers, secretaries, dressmakers and accountants, according to the 2011 national occupations list.