Like hundreds of thousands of others in Punjab, Sukhwant Singh’s dream of migrating to Canada began and ended at an immigration consultancy office in his homeland.
After two years and paying about $8,000 to the consultants at Rudraksh Group Overseas Solutions, Sukhwant was no closer to getting the promised visa.
He had borrowed the cash from a moneylender.
Last week as his father’s battle with cancer failing, Sukhwant decided to confront the company officials to demand a refund in the town of Mohali, outside the Punjab capital of Chandigarh.
They refused him once again.
Unable to fight anymore, Sukhwant, the 28-year-old bank officer from town of Sangrur, exited the office and drank a bottle of poison.
Minutes before dying, Sukhwant had called up one of his friends, saying, “Mera permanent visa lag gaya hai and mein hamesha ke liye ja raha hoon.” The phone got disconnected after that.
“His voice was choking and he was crying when he called up his friend. He dreamt of going to Canada and his dream took his life,” said Baljeet Singh, Sukhwant’s brother, who had come to receive the body after the postmortem at a local hospital.
“My brother had borrowed money from a money lender on interest. For the last two years, he had been making rounds of the immigration firm either to provide him visa or return the money. On Wednesday, he again visited the immigration company and when he didn’t get the money, Sukhwant took the extreme step,” said Baljeet.
He said their father is suffering from cancer and the growing interest on the borrowed money had forced Sukhwant to take the drastic step.
Police are now investigating the immigration firm — Rudraksh Group Overseas Solutions – as local media reported that another aspiring immigrant had tried to kill himself at the same location earlier this year.
Local media said that on August 19, Sunil Bishnoi from Jodhpur, Rajasthan, had climbed the top floor of the company’s office and threatened to commit suicide by jumping from there. 
He alleged that the company was not repaying about $4,000, which he had paid to it for a Canadian visa. After the police intervention, the amount in question was returned to him.
Thousands of people, especially youth, from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh seek immigration to other countries, especially the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and others, every year.
Scores of immigration firms and agents operate across Punjab and Chandigarh to cater to the immigration demand, both legal and illegal, from the region say activists and authorities.
This makes it fertile grounds for scammers.
The South Asian Post reported in 2012 that Indian police have launched an investigation into what they believe is a massive immigration scam by a company operated by an Indo-Canadian family.
Claiming to be the “world’s largest immigration group”, the multi-billion dollar WorldWide Immigration Consultancy Services (WWICS) in Chandigarh, Punjab is under the police scanner after it was found the firm was dealing in work permit visas without having a licence for it, reported IANS.
Established in 1993, WorldWide Immigration Consultancy Services says on its website that it is the world leader in providing Global Resettlement Solutions, which is vouched by more than 80,000 people who have happily settled in their dream destinations like Canada, USA, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. 
The status of this investigation could not be determined.
Meanwhile, a recent survey showed that 81 per cent of people migrating from Punjab to foreign countries come from the state's villages. Contrary to popular perception, about 45 per cent of people are headed to Gulf countries, while Canada remains the second most favoured destination, the study said.
Immigration firms and English speaking training institutes are making inroads into rural Punjab as these areas are catching up with their urban counterparts to emigrate for a better life. 
"Out migration from Punjab is different... we have some people behaving same way as in Kerala, but most of the people want to settle abroad and so they keep connections with family in Punjab but they don't send money in the same way and their general behaviour is different," said Jacques Veron of National Institute for Demographic Studies, Paris.
People in rural areas mostly leave while they are in their early twenties, the latest study says. Education or no education, their foreign dreams are propelled by the mushrooming immigration agencies. 
Immigration lawyer Neeraj Chaudhary says, "Most of them want to go abroad by hook or crook... so they are easy prey for these so called immigration consultants... in Punjab emigration has been taking place for decades but there is no government agency to guide people."