Nigerian student Lola Akinlade has been ordered to leave Canada by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) due to a fraudulent acceptance letter used to obtain her study visa and work permit.
Akinlade, who graduated with a diploma in Social Services from Nova Scotia Community College in 2019, revealed her distressing experience to CBC News.
She was unaware that the acceptance letter, provided by an agent for the University of Regina in 2016, was fake until IRCC until contacted her just weeks before her graduation from the new institution.
While receiving her diploma, Akinlade experienced a mix of joy and anxiety upon realising that she had unwittingly relied on a fraudulent document to secure her study permit. “I was devastated. That was the beginning of my trauma,” she said.