Under Canada's immigration laws, the CBSA has various enforcement options to pursue suspected cases of fraud, notably marriage of convenience cases. That can include the removal of the individual from Canada if that person misrepresented themselves or did not comply with the sponsorship conditions.
The CBSA also investigates and pursues criminal charges under IRPA in cases where both parties are knowing participants to a marriage fraud in order to gain entry to Canada, such as cases where the sponsor may be given a financial benefit in exchange for the sponsorship as well as cases where they may be an organizer or facilitator in setting up fake marriages for immigration purposes.
For statistical purposes, the CBSA spends about half of its criminal investigation funding on immigration investigations. Criminal investigations related to immigration offences tend to be complex, lengthy, resource-intensive, and difficult to obtain evidence on. For that reason, criminal investigations are not open for all referrals, particularly if an administrative procedure is available that may be equally appropriate, such as removal from Canada. We focus our criminal resources on serious contraventions of legislation, cases where the probability of obtaining the required evidence to pursue the investigation is likely and success of prosecution is assessed as high.
Again, here are some statistics. Since April 1, 2010 there have been 392 referrals of marriage convenience cases to our criminal investigations division. Of those, 67 cases have been opened, and 34 remain open. Seven charges have been laid, and three out of five that have gone to court have been concluded with a guilty finding. The other two remain before the courts.