Exceptional visas for Burkinabè citizens wishing to visit, study or work in Canada. This would be the result of a bilateral agreement between Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and that of Burkina Faso. The information published on the website http://ilnoi.com/visa/bf/ and widely shared on the social network Facebook, generating 23,000 comments and 15,000 shares. It was also shared in several WhatsApp groups and contacts. We checked this with the Canadian Embassy in Burkina Faso who claim it is neither more nor a scam.
Why is this information that the Canadian government is offering special visas to Burkinabe citizens wrong?
1- The confirmation of the issued visa is linked to the applicant sharing the form with his WhatsApp contacts. In fact, if you click on the link that will take you to the website, you will come to a page where you can read in the first few lines: “Apply online for a Canadian visa”. And when you click on the “Apply” tab, you will land on another page where you need to enter your identity, age range and education level. Once this step is completed, the applicant will receive a message stating that after verification, they are qualified to receive the visa. To complete the process, he is asked to share the form he has filled out with 15 contacts or in 5 Whatsapp groups. He will then receive a confirmation text message within 15 minutes.
- Application for form release
2- No confirmation message will be sent to the applicant even if he fills out the form and shares it with his WhatsApp contacts. We have followed the various steps recommended for the visa application, in particular by filling in all the requested information and sharing the form with the contact number provided, but no message has been sent to us confirming the receipt of the visa. Furthermore, if we look at the Facebook comments of the publication, we see that most of them come from fake profiles.
3- Looking for traces of an agreement between Canada and Burkina Faso, we looked at the Facebook page of the Embassy of Canada in Burkina Faso. Nowhere is there any mention of an agreement that would allow citizens of Burkinabe to benefit from exceptional Canadian visas. We have contacted the embassy which confirms that no bilateral easy issuance Canadian visa agreement has been signed between the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and that of Burkina Faso. The embassy says it’s another scam that immigrant candidates need to be wary of.
- Tweet from the Embassy of Canada
In summary, this information is false about a bilateral agreement that would allow citizens of Burkinabe to obtain exceptional visas to study, visit or work in Canada. Those wishing to travel to Canada are invited to visit the Government of Canada official website, www.canada.cato get all the useful information for submitting your visa online. They can then learn how to log into their secure IRCC Canada account for free and without the risk of being scammed.
Armelle Ouedraogo
Lefaso.net
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