Government training document flags Chinese spouse as sign of non-genuine marriage

A training document issued to Citizenship and Immigration officers five years ago advised that a Chinese individual marrying a non-Chinese person was a sign of possible marriage fraud.

The document, which Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) said is no longer in use, was intended to help CIC officers assess applications for permanent residency from the spouses or common-law partners of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. It offered specific guidance on how to identify whether a relationship is genuine: marriages intended primarily to obtain immigration status are illegal.

Some indicators of a “non-genuine marital relationship” identified in the document include:

• Chinese nationals, often university students, marrying non-Chinese
• The reception is informal in a restaurant, reception will end after dinner
• Sponsor is often uneducated, with a low-paying job or on welfare
• There are usually no “diamond” rings
• Couples usually do not have a honeymoon

“What stood out the most, probably, is that CIC is training its officers to be suspicious of Chinese people marrying non-Chinese and poor people. That’s the part that leaps out,” said Steven Meurrens, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer who obtained the training document through an Access to Information request.

“I know the mainland Chinese community especially has always felt that they were being singled out. I used to always say, ‘No, I don’t think so. I think that might be in your heads.’ But apparently I was wrong. They are being singled out in training,” he said.

In response to questions from Global News, CIC wrote in a statement, “The Government of Canada does not discriminate against applicants based on country of origin. All applications from around the world are assessed equally against exactly the same criteria, regardless of their country of origin.”

However, wrote the department, it does not provide guidance to its officers on specific issues like preventing marriage fraud, and training manuals are updated as required.

“The specific document you are referencing was an ad hoc document issued to officers nearly five years ago in response to an observed, temporary spike in cases of marriages of convenience. The instruction has not been active for more than three years, as the conditions that led to the instruction being issued subsequently changed.”

The department also noted that China has been one of the top sources of immigration to Canada over the past decade.

Meurrens said that in his practice, he has not observed that spousal applications from Chinese individuals are approved less often than those from other nationalities.

“Thankfully, I think in my experience, most officers have smartly ignored their training and don’t have these incredible biases, or at least I don’t think they have these incredible biases when processing applications,” he said. “Ultimately, I don’t think, I haven’t seen it where Citizenship and Immigration Canada treats interracial applications with Chinese particularly negative.”

“I’d like to think most officers read this and very quickly as soon as they start processing realize how ridiculous this part of their training was. Especially the Canadian being on welfare or having a low-paying job being evidence of marriage fraud. That’s unbelievably offensive.”