A Kenyan who was looking to travel to Canada on a visit visa has shared how they were shown dust by a Nairobi agent. The Kenyan who identified as Sarah Nduku shared that she first paid a travel agent in Nairobi Sh. 100,000 for visa application and processing in December 2023.
Apparently, the agent had guaranteed that with this payment, she would get a visa within a couple of weeks. This was not to be. Instead, the agent took Sarah back and forth before finally admitting, after a couple of months, that her visa application had been denied in February 2024.
Not one to give up, Sarah then approached a different agent in the city. “I saw TikTok videos of people claiming that they ha gotten visas through this agent. I also read positive reviews about them on Facebook groups. I thought I had a chance,” she said.
She raised Sh. 150,000 and paid the agent in April 2024. “They were very confident that they would get me the visa. In fact, they jokingly asked me to start shopping for suitcases,” she told Bizna Kenya.
What was the promise of a visa within three weeks turned into the long wait. “In July, I visited their offices and demanded for answers. They had promised me it would not take longer than three weeks. It was now three months,” she says.
She was told that the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had experienced an upswing in the number of visitor visa applications that had resulted in a backlog.
“I was told it was out of their hands; there was a backlog and all I needed to do was wait,” she says.
Unknown to her, this was not the truth. She would later on learn that the IRCC had responded to her application in mid-June, raised concerns that she had used an authorized representative to file her application, and a fraudulent bank statement. Sarah had then been issued with a procedural fairness letter (PFL) by the IRCC.
“I never saw any of these because I didn’t have the logins,” she says. Instead of being informed about the developments on her application, Sarah says that her agent went ahead and filed a response to the PFL to the IRCC. A few weeks after the PFL was filed, Sarah, the IRCC issued Sarah with a five year ban.
“I only learned about the developments in September after literally camping at the agent’s offices for a whole week demanding for either outcome or a refund,” she says. “The agent messed me up. I have lost money, time, and future opportunities.”