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(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)

A temporary worker from Singapore upended his life to work the next two years as a cook in Kelowna, but he landed in Canada with no permit and claims the agency that arranged the job gave him a fraudulent offer.

That's according to a notice of claim filed in BC Supreme Court earlier this week in which Jero Oliver Miran from the Philippines accused a Vancouver immigration consulting company of fraudulently issuing the offer letter and breaching their contract.

CanNest Immigration Consulting Ltd. did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

According to his notice of claim, Miran contracted CanNest in 2022 and got an initial job offer to work full-time at Kelowna sushi restaurant Fresh Box. He paid CanNest $6,490, of which $5,000 was the company's consultation fee and another $155 was the cost of his work permit.

An additional $1,000, however, was for a labour market assessment required for the temporary foreign worker program. It's a fee that employers are legally required to pay, but Miran claims he was charged for the assessment.

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Although he got the initial job offer in 2022, he acted on a second offer from what was claimed to be the same company two years later. In May 2024, he got the new job offer from Fresh Box, signed by company owner Shinwoo Lee. He got his work permit the same day, according to the notice of claim.

He quit his job in Singapore when he got the offer. It wasn't until the next month that CanNest told Miran the employer sold the company. The next day, June 5, CanNest told Miran he should have no problem entering Canada and getting a new work permit at the airport.

Once Miran got to Canada on June 13, he told CanNest he was "alarmed" by his new situation, having landed in a new country without a job to cover his living expenses, according to the claim.

CanNest said employers aren't required to keep workers when the business is sold and there is "nothing CanNest can do" but find another worker. They added that "additional fees are inevitable," including another $1,000 for a second labour market assessment that could take four to five months, according to the claim.

In total, they quoted him $2,500 for the consultation fee, $1,000 for the assessment processing fee and $155 for another work permit fee. Combined, he was quoted $3,780 after taxes, more than half of the amount he already paid.

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Miran claimed CanNest "took advanatage of (his) situation as a vulnerable temporary foreign worker by overcharging" for their services. He also claimed CanNest fraudulently signed the job offer as the company was sold in 2023, before he received the second offer.

He did not pay the additional fee, but he also can't afford to return to Singapore. Even if he could, he said he wouldn't have a job to return to.

Miran's lawyer, Michael Patterson, said his office helped him get another permit.

CanNest has not responded in court and Miran's claims haven't been proven.

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His lawsuit comes as the federal government reckons with heavy criticism directed at the immigration program. A UN report last month called the temporary foreign worker program a "breeding ground" for contemporary slavery.

The Liberal government responded by announcing stricter rules on the program, which is expected to reduce the number of temporary workers coming into Canada. That comes after an increase to the program aimed at helping Canadian businesses after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, there were 183,820 permits issued, up from 98,025 in 2019.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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