REGINA – A Saskatchewan judge has dismissed a judicial review application filed by an Indian national whose provincial application was revoked after authorities got a tip of misrepresentation.
Immigration officials in Nova Scotia had alerted Saskatchewan authorities about possible fraud involving an unregistered and undeclared immigration consultancy used by Mittalben Chiragkumar Sukhadia.
“Foreign nationals do not have a right to immigrate to Canada. Neither is there any right to a privileged immigration process,” said Justice Andrew S. Davis of Regina Court of King’s Bench, adding that all applicants, however, should expect fair and reasonable processing of their provincial immigration applications.
Sukhadia, a medical laboratory technician from Surat, India, successfully applied under the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) in October 2022 through the "Occupation in Demand" stream. Her nomination was approved in February 2023, putting her one step closer to permanent residency in Canada. Three months later, when immigration officials in Nova Scotia alerted Saskatchewan authorities, investigators from Saskatchewan’s Program Integrity Unit (PIU) found a Facebook post from the unregistered consultancy that included a redacted copy of Sukhadia’s nomination approval letter, along with a message congratulating her as “our client.”
This prompted the Saskatchewan Ministry of the Economy to issue her a Letter of Procedural Fairness in March 2024, giving her an opportunity to explain her connection to the unauthorized representative. Sukhadia denied any involvement with the consultancy agency, but the PIU found her responses insufficient and revoked her nomination on grounds of misrepresentation.
In his July 10 written decision, Justice Davis upheld the Ministry’s decision saying failing to disclose the use of an unauthorized representative, particularly in a case raising concerns about document fraud, compromised the integrity of the nomination process. Justice Davis also found the SINP’s conclusion reasonable, given the evidence linking Sukhadia to the unregistered immigration consultant.
He barred Sukhadia from reapplying to the SINP for two years.
