Scammed by a visa-hungry husband

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I have a friend living in Canada. She is a Canadian citizen and she got married to a Jamaican man in 2008. When he went to the embassy for his interview in March 2010, he was successful, but since then she hasn’t heard from him. He changed his phone number and his email. She found out that the marriage was a scam and she went to the embassy and cancelled the papers in June 2010. The embassy called him for another interview because of the cancellation and he did not go. He bought a ticket and he landed in Canada two days after she cancelled the papers. She found out that he was there and went to the Border Services Agency and told them what happened. They told her that they are investigating the case. The problem is that he is there on her name and he has committed a fraud. What can she do immediately?

Thank you for your letter on your friend’s behalf. You however have not given enough specific information in your letter about certain matters, so that I shall have to rely on my assumptions in order to cover the issues which in my view are pertinent.

I assume that after your friend married the man in 2008, the marriage was consummated and then she left and returned to her home in Canada. I also assume, as you say, that it was after his interviews in March 2010 that he started his strange behaviour and he changed his contact particulars; but they had before this, whatever marital contact or cohabitation they could manage to devise during 2009 and the early part of 2010. So up to his successful interview, they had a “marriage” by all accounts. If this is so, termination of the marriage should be a dissolution and not a nullity decree.

In addition, I assume that his interview at the Canadian Embassy related to a citizenship application and not to a mere visitors’ or student visa. I also assume that when she concluded that his marriage to her was not sincere but was a mere device by him to obtain Canadian citizenship, she came to Jamaica and went to the embassy here and as you say “cancelled the papers” in June 2010.

If this is the case, it is unfortunate that neither the embassy nor your friend immediately informed the immigration services in Canada of the fact of the cancellation. She must have told the embassy officials the reason why she was having his application for citizenship cancelled, and since his marriage to her was a scam, it should have been clear that he would do his utmost to get into Canada as soon as he was given the green light on his application.

Anyway, despite the embassy’s invitation to him for another interview which he ignored, he managed to land in Canada without any impediment.

You state that she reported the fact that he had entered the country to the Canadian Border Agency and they are investigating the matter. This being the case, and assuming that she has been very clear in her report to them so that they understood the depth of his fraud on her, she has done what she can immediately do about the situation.

It is understandable that she is quite impatient about the matter and wishes his deportation to be effected as a matter of urgency. She has, however, done what she could and should have done in the circumstances after he succeeded in entering Canada and even before, when she cancelled the application at the embassy. She reported his scam marriage to her to the relevant Canadian authorities and the part regarding his deportation is now in their hands and is their responsibility.

She can assist the authorities by making whatever enquiries she can of his family members, friends and acquaintances in order to obtain any fact which may indicate his residence or the places he visits and pass the information on to them.

In addition, I would advise that she commences divorce proceedings as soon as possible. Since she is unaware of his place of abode, she can apply for substituted service and that it be effected at his last place of residence here in Jamaica, and on a family member (who she knows he would retain contact with), and by publication in a newspaper there in Canada which she knows or suspects he or his contacts would or are likely to read.

After she applies for her divorce, she should inform the immigration authorities in Canada and give them a copy of her decree absolute when it is granted to her.

I wish her the best of luck and hope that after she obtains her divorce, she can put this terribly unfortunate matter behind her, and that she can go forward with her life and find a true and loving partner in the future.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law and a women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. We cannot provide personal responses.