By Mata Press Service and IANS

Canada’s love affair with India could be in for a rocky ride.
Just as the two nations ramp up their relationship with trade missions, the Bollywood Oscar show in Toronto this month, the Indian Summer festival in Vancouver and a host of bilateral business meets, word out of Ottawa is that Canada is likely to soon introduce fingerprinting for Indian citizens seeking Canadian visas.
The new measure is part of Canadian plans to boost border security and check immigration fraud. India, which is the second biggest source of immigration for Canada, will be the first country to be subjected to fingerprinting.
Immigration Canada confirmed that it will soon roll out biometric scanning for travellers seeking visas to Canada, but it won’t say which country will be first.
The Immigration ministry expects to make a decision in early fall, or sometime in 2012, said an official spokesperson.
Most Indo-Canadians reacting to the report in Greater Vancouver said they have no problems with them or their friends and relatives in India being fingerprinted before visiting Canada.
They, however, hope the system will be done with speed and fairness as the visa rejection rate by Canadian missions in India is very high.
“I have no issues with this if it makes Canada’s borders safer…my question is why India first,” said Pritam Gill, A Vancouver-based businessman.
“Fraud is everywhere. I read in your paper about visa fraud in the Philippines and China...so why India first?” he asked.
Jayaraj Menon, an Indo-Canadian student hoped the fingerprinting exercise will help bring more students from India to Canada.
“I hear a lot about visas for Indian students being rejected in my college,” he said.
Mississauga-based immigration consultant Sheetal Jhuti said, “I personally don’t think fingerprinting is a big deal. The process and procedures to safeguard visas is not an issue. Let there be more safety.’’
 “One, deal with granting of visitor visas in India in a better and positive manner as the denial rate is ridiculous.
“Two, biometrics should be implemented for everybody, not a select few. India’s borders make it relevant unfortunately, but it (India) is not the largest source country for refugee or unwanted elements. Countries such as Algeria and from the Middle East are the ones that need stricter controls.’’
Toronto-based Arvind Vijh, director for India Services Group at Deloitte, saw no problem with the Canadian move. “Those abusing the system need to be stopped. Fingerprinting makes air travel safer for everyone since identity of every traveler is verified.’’
Calling it a positive development for business travelers, he said, “Once biometrics are in the system, business people should be able to get long-term multiple-entry visas. This move will increase business flows and opportunities.’’
Kalyan Sundram, of the Canada-India Foundation, told IANS, “Biometrics is here to stay, even though it is being debated in India. It is important for the Canadian government to fully test it out internally (like any product) before putting together a fair schedule of global implementation, which avoids misinterpretations in friendly nations like India.’’
Currently, Indian business executives who travel to the United States or the United Kingdom must have their fingerprints scanned. Those travelling to Canada haven’t faced that requirement.
According to businessman Hemant Shah, “Biometric identification is merely using technology to check fraudulent passage into a country. It is more scientific and reduces chances of human errors. I do not see the move ruffling any feathers in India, where people are remarkably aware of genuine concerns of countries such as Canada.
“As far as diplomatic or trade relations between the two countries getting impacted, I am confident of the Canadian immigration authorities are doing a thorough study before introducing it.’’
However, Kam Rathee, vice-chairman of the Canada-India Education Council, seemed to be unhappy about the move.
“Canada should introduce fingerprinting all across the board for all suspect countries at the same time instead of singling out India. Putting India in the same list as rogue countries and not including China and Mexico in it will be a setback to Canada- India business relations, which we are so strenuously trying to nurture.’’
The Canadian fingerprinting proposal comes as Indian government’s begins using biometrics to assemble a database covering all of the country’s 1.2 billion citizens.
“I think because India is already doing that the sense of outrage will be minimal,” said an immigration consultant in Surrey.
The Canadian consulate in Chandigarh, which holds a high profile in Western Canada’s  Indo-Canadian community, is among the diplomatic missions in India that faced a high incidence of fraudulent and forged documentation submitted with visa applications.
An Immigration Canada document made public by the South Asian Post in an earlier report stated “fraud is omnipresent in Chandigarh and is found in every sort of document, Indian and Canadian.”
“We have seen copies of forged Canadian passports, forged PR cards, forced Notices of Assessment from the Canadian Revenue Agency, forged Indian bank documents, forged employment letters both Indian and Canadian, forged letters from Canadian funeral homes and from Canadian educational institutions,” said the documents.
“Entire ‘kits’ of forged documents are regularly seen, supporting requests for parents to visit their children in Canada and to attend the funerals in Canada of close relatives.”
Fraud is being detected in the applications by religious workers for Gurdwaras or Sikh temples in Canada, people applying to be nannies and in spousal applications. Citizenship and Immigration Canada acknowledges roughly 1,000 fraud marraige cases are reported annually in Punjab.
The highest refusal rates are for study at private career colleges, some of which recruit widely and indiscriminately. One private career college in Punjab has, since June 2006, issued more than 500 letters of acceptance through local agents for students destined for Canada.
A site visit to the college in Canada revealed it only had 4 classrooms.
Two years ago, Canada Border Service Agency agents discovered dozens of people using Jet Airways, India’s largest private carrier arriving at Pearson International Airport with fake travel documents. The airline came close to losing its landing privileges in Canada.
In many of these cases, a person applied for and received a legitimate Canadian visa. The photo page of their Indian passport was then replaced with a doctored one and used by a different person coming to Canada.
– with files from Gurmukh Singh in Toronto