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Case summary

An applicant submitted an application for a Canadian study permit, and the permit was approved. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) subsequently reopened the file for review. During that review it was established that the bank statement filed to show the applicant’s funds in their home country — a deposit of RMB 2 million — had been falsified. The outcome was not a request for further documents or a fresh application: the case was treated as misrepresentation, and the applicant received a five-year ban.

How IRCC verified that deposit is not something we know. The department does not publish its verification methods, and we do not speculate about how any individual file was checked. What the case does establish is that a document issued outside Canada is not, for that reason, beyond verification.

What the rules say

IRCC’s page on the consequences of immigration and citizenship fraud states that submitting false or altered documents is fraud, and that it may lead to:

• refusal of the application;
• a ban from Canada of at least five years;
• a permanent record of fraud with IRCC;
• loss of existing temporary or permanent resident status;
• removal from Canada.

The same page states that the applicant is responsible for all of the information in the application, even where a representative completed it. Who prepared the documents does not change where responsibility lies.

Approval is not the end of the process

According to material IRCC provided to a parliamentary committee, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations were amended on January 31, 2025 to add discretionary cancellation authorities, setting out when an officer may cancel a temporary resident visa (TRV), an electronic travel authorization (eTA), a work permit or a study permit on a case-by-case basis.

In other words, a file may still be revisited after a visa or permit has been issued, and an approval can be reversed where problems with the documents come to light later.

How far the consequences reach

A five-year ban is not confined to the study permit application in question. While it stands, visitor visas, family visits, accompanying a spouse, work permits and provincial nominee applications are all affected, and the applicant’s study and immigration plans for Canada are effectively suspended for that period.

How we handle it

Where funds, work history or education fall short of a program’s requirements, the path can be re-planned around the applicant’s real circumstances: the program category, the destination province and the timing are all open to discussion. The authenticity of documents is not. Before a case is filed, we review every document against a single standard — whether it will hold up to verification. Applicants who are unsure about their own documents should raise the question before filing, rather than waiting for the department to raise it.

Case details have been anonymised to protect client privacy.