Priti Sangam advises multinational companies on how to restructure workforces and modernize operations.
asserted
Sangam → advise → operations
Yet Canada, her home since 2024, has repeatedly passed her over for permanent residence.
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Canada → pass → residence
In early October, the HR consultant from India faced another hurdle when she turned 30 and automatically lost five points under the age criteria of Canada’s competitive skilled immigration system, which ranks candidates based on attributes such as language proficiency, education and work experience.
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which → face → proficiency
Then came a break.
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break → come → ?
On Oct. 16, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab announced that candidates in the skilled immigration talent pool would receive up to 150 bonus points if they have at least one year of Canadian work experience — or a job offer — in one of 186 designated “high-wage” occupations.
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they → announce → occupations
“It was a relief when I heard the news,” said Sangam.
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Sangam → hear → news
“I love Toronto and I can see our future here.
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I → love → future
What’s more disappointing is there are people around me with less qualification and less education getting permanent residence because of certain rules, while you are not getting it.”
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you → ’ → it
Sangam stands to gain an extra 40 points, hopefully qualifying for permanent residence before her work permit expires in January.
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permit → stand → January
Experts say the new high-wage rules can help Canada attract and retain highly skilled migrants amid a still volatile immigration system.
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Canada → say → system
But the new rules that open a door for Sangam could also open a back door for others.
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that → open → others
They warn that the system is ripe for manipulation — and the gaming has already begun.
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gaming → warn → manipulation
“All you need to do is just hop onto Reddit or go to some Facebook groups and read everyone’s posts,” said Kubeir Kamal, a Toronto-based immigration consultant.
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Kamal → need → posts
“So many of them are asking, can I change my occupational code?
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I → ask → code
my employer is giving me this job offer letter?
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employer → give → letter
You can see everybody is trying to figure out how they can circumvent this” for the bonus points.
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they → see → points
Removing a safeguard to streamline job offer assessment
For years, Ottawa gave candidates in the immigration talent pool extra points for having a job offer validated through an approved labour market impact assessment by Employment and Social Development Canada.
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offer → remove → Canada
That bonus was removed in March 2025 out of fraud concerns.
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bonus → remove → concerns
“This temporary measure will reduce fraud by removing the incentive to illegally buy or sell labour market impact assessments to improve a candidate’s chances of being selected to come to Canada as a permanent resident,” the Immigration Department stated at the time.
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Department → reduce → time
As part of the changes announced in October, the government said high-wage job offers will not be scrutinized by ESDC.
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offers → announce → ESDC
The Immigration Department will be solely responsible for verifying whether an offer is genuine.
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offer → verify → ?
Not long after the announcement, social media posts emerged showing that people are already talking about ways to embellish work experience and inflate job responsibilities to meet the occupational criteria on the high-wage list.
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people → emerge → list
Kamal said unscrupulous agents and employers had charged more than $60,000 for bogus job offers, and he expects that market to return.
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market → say → offers
While some occupations that require specialized education and licensing such as nursing and engineering are harder to fake, he said others such as education counsellors, human resources managers and purchasing managers are more prone to fraud because the required qualifications are more general and experience-based.
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qualifications → require → fraud
The Immigration Department said removing the HSDC assessment “does not reduce rigour” as the new process takes an “integrated” approach where immigration officers will evaluate the genuineness of the job offer alongside the candidate’s qualifications and the employer’s ability and need to hire.
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officers → say → qualifications
Officials will continue to verify qualifying job offers and take measures to identify and address potential fraud or misrepresentation, and the changes will ensure consistency while maintaining integrity of the process, it said.
Inflating work experience
Rattandeep Singh, an immigration consultant in Brampton, said he has recently been approached by a couple of foreign workers, whose employers agreed to give them updated employment letters that would reflect a higher job position than what they actually held.
One person wanted to upgrade his job title from bookkeeper to financial controller in his profile in the immigration talent pool.
“The advice I gave to the client is that everything we put in the immigration system online leaves a digital footprint,” said Singh.
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Singh → continue → footprint
“It might improve your score on paper, but it could also raise questions about the credibility of your employment history.”
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it → improve → history
Applicants caught misrepresenting work experience or submitting fraudulent job offers face not only refusal of their application but a ban from Canada, he noted.
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he → catch → Canada
In the past, employers, at a minimum, were required to show no Canadian was available for the job when trying to validate a job offer to a foreign national, but now they only need to say they’re hiring for one of the listed jobs, said Conservative MP Brad Redekopp, who sits on the parliamentary immigration committee.
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who → require → committee
It has been known for years that unscrupulous employers not only sell job offers, but also exploit unsuspecting foreign workers by paying below-market wages or requiring kickbacks, he added.
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he → know → kickbacks
Targets will be influenced by the stubborn math of a temporary resident population that’s proven
“You can be assured that shady immigration consultants and employers will find many more ways to game this system,” Redekopp told a recent news conference, calling for lower immigration and further reforms to the “broken” system.
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Redekopp → influence → system
“The result will be defrauded employees, (and) some consultants and employers getting rich off this scheme.”
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consultants → defraud → scheme
Vance Langford, a Calgary-based immigration lawyer, said the big question now is what extra steps immigration officials are going to take to verify if these high-wage work experience and job offers are genuine, especially when the department has made major workforce reductions amid budget constraints.
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department → base → constraints
He said officials could ask candidates for tax slips, pay stubs, job offer letters, employment agreements, and go as far as demanding evidence of business meetings they have convened, reports they’ve issued, business correspondence, as well as hiring and firing decisions they’ve approved as proof of credentials in a supervisory or managerial role.
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they → say → role
“What it really comes down to is when you get the invitation to apply for permanent residence and you submit your evidence, what is (the department) doing to verify that evidence is valid?” said Langford.
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Langford → come → what
“I think they need to do more than ever before.”
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they → think → more
The Immigration Department said it will update officer training and focus on verifying whether job offers are real and whether candidates are qualified for the job they claim.
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they → say → job
It will continue monitoring for fraud through existing tools, including risk-based checks, document verification, information sharing with other government agencies and referrals to enforcement when needed.
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It → continue → enforcement
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