Deportation order that would force Indian international student to leave Canada delayed

An Indian international student who was scheduled to be deported from Canada on Tuesday morning is welcoming a delay to his deportation order.

Lovepreet Singh is among a group of about 16 students who say their future in Canada is at risk after it was discovered that an agent allegedly gave them fake offer letters to a Canadian school.

"The deportation got delayed, but it's not cancelled yet," Singh told CBC Toronto on Tuesday.

"I'm happy that it got delayed because we had this struggle from a while and the mental situation is still not good."

Sing said his lawyer advised him about the delay to the deportation order via email over the weekend.

Singh came to Canada in 2017 to attend Lambton College's Mississauga campus, he says. Part of that process included hiring an immigration agent to help him through the hoops of applying to a Canadian school and immigrating to the country, he says, which resulted in an offer letter he used when entering the country. 

But when he got to Canada Singh says the college told him he wasn't showing up in their system.

He tried to move on, getting a new study permit and completing a course at a different school in Montreal. But even after getting that second study permit, he says he was told he would be deported because of the allegedly fake offer letter he used when coming to the country. 

Singh camped outside a Canadian Border Services Agency office in Toronto for several days this month to call for a review of his case, saying he and other students are victims, not criminals.

Singh's lawyer, Naseem Mithoowani, said she was notified on Friday morning by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that the removal had been "administratively cancelled.

"But no one was able to tell us for how long or why, despite my inquiries," Mithoowani told CBC Toronto.

"As such, Lovepreet's removal appears to still be a possibility, although when it might be rescheduled, if at all, remains to be seen.

"As you can imagine, this creates a fair amount of anxiety for my client, who is grateful that he is not facing imminent deportation but whose future in Canada is far from certain."

Meanwhile, Singh says while he welcomes the delay to the deportation order, the matter is not over yet.