Jim Metcalfe – Director of Immigration: Social media is becoming an important source of information for Citizenship and Immigration and the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA).

Recently we were consulted by an individual who had applied for permanent residence in Canada. He claimed to have worked for a particular company in a senior position. OOPS! His LinkedIn profile indicated he worked for a different company in a lesser position. This alerted immigration officials to the fact that this guy wasn’t on the up and up. Bad move.

Similarly, I’ve heard of federal court reports in which applicants claimed to have resided in Canada when in fact photos on Facebook showed them cavorting on the beach in Dubai. In another case, a person’s photos showed them graduating from a high school in Amman when they had claimed to have graduated from a school in Montreal.

There is an old adage, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” To bring this up-to-date we could add, “Particularly if you post on social media.”