Matrimonios entre canadienses y cubanos

PorCubaTodo

Ottawa y Toronto Sun señalan que datos de un informe preparado por
funcionarios de inmigración de Canadá en La Habana muestran que al menos un
cuarto de todas las solicitudes realizadas por canadienses para traer sus
cónyuges de Cuba a Canadá implican "matrimonios de conveniencia". Agrega que
aproximadamente 700 visas son emitidas para los cónyuges cada año por la
oficina de inmigración de Canadá en La Habana, y hasta un 25% de ellos son
matrimonios fraudulentos.

ARTÍCULO EN INGLÉS


Fake Cuban, Canadian marriages common: Report
By BRIAN LILLEY, Parliamentary Bureau Last Updated: October 13, 2010 2:11pm
OTTAWA - As many as a quarter of all applications to bring Cuban spouses to
Canada involve "marriages of convenience," a report prepared by Canadian
immigration officials in Havana shows.
The report, obtained by immigration lawyer Richard Kurland through access to
information and provided to QMI Agency, found that approximately 700 visas
are issued for spouses each year by Canada's immigration office in Havana,
and up to 25% of them are shams marriages.
"The major fraud concern," reads the report "arises from marriages of
convenience, including same-sex relationships, resulting from the large
number of Canadians vacationing in Cuba. Lack of a common language,
significant cultural and age differences combine to mandate a large number
of interviews in priority FC1 cases."
FC1 cases are applications by Canadians to sponsor their spouse to immigrate
to Canada.
"We are concerned about the large number of scam marriages that are entered
into solely for the purposes of immigrating to Canada," confirmed Alykhan
Velshi a spokesman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
Velshi told QMI that the government is aware of the problem in Cuba and at
several other locations around the world.
"We have measures in place to make sure we can detect them," Velshi said of
fake marriages. "That's why we interview a large number of spousal
sponsorship cases."
With such a large supply of people looking to come to Canada, government
officials admit they can't catch everyone, and some scam artists will make
it through the system.
"The profile is the vacationing Canadian who gets amorous with a local
Cuban," said Kurland. "There's no lack of supply and no lack of desire to
come to Canada."
Kurland said he's heard of cases involving middle aged Canadians going down
to Cuba to pick up someone 20 to 30 years younger than themselves. That, he
said, is often the profile that will tip immigration officials off that
something might not be right.
But Kurland said that even if scam spouses do make it through the interview
process, and then takes off once they land in Canada, they are often only
hurting their jilted spouse.
"When they bolt on coming to Canada, the spouse is on the hook for 36 months
of welfare if the wandering husband or wife ends up on welfare," Kurland
said. "At the end of the day, it's just another way to come to Canada:
spring boarding off the unknowing or open-hearted Canadian spouse."