No, Canada Is Not Issuing Visa Lottery. The Link Is Fake

Claim

A message circulating on WhatsApp groups claims that the Canada visa lottery application for 2022/2023 is open.  It also stated that the Canadian Government has Increased the number of VISA issued to people through visa lottery by 500% in  2022.

 The post says all countries are eligible;  no age limit and no application fee. It also urged people to take the chance to apply and migrate legally to Canada through the link (https://lyupz.com/CANADA-VISA-APPLICATION ).

About Canada Visa

The organization responsible for Canadian Visas is the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). It is the department of the Government of Canada with responsibility for matters dealing with immigration to Canada, refugees, and Canadian citizenship. The department was established in 1994 following a reorganization

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada facilitate the arrival of immigrants, provides protection to refugees, and offers programming to help newcomers settle in Canada. The IRCC also grants citizenship and issues travel documents (such as passports) to Canadians.

ROUNDCHECK Findings

ROUNDCHECK clicked through the link to reveal that falsehood in the claim.

When an applicant opens the link, it directs to a graphics page showing multiple information at the same time requesting users to register with a password.

ROUNDCHECK noticed that when an applicant fills in their details and inputs a password, they will access the next page.

The next page asks applicants to validate their name to proceed while the third page asks people to choose their VISA type after which a congratulatory message pops up.

Applicants are now required to share the link with 15 friends or 5 WhatsApp groups and also keep sharing until the green bar is filled. The instruction also explained that a confirmation email would be sent within 24 hours after a successful application.

This pattern is a red flag to track malicious links.

Using Verification Tool To Assess Site

With the aid of ScamAdviser, a website search reveals that many low-rated websites were found on the same server.

Also using Whois (another website search engine) to track the link revealed that the site is unavailable.

Previous checks have also revealed that links with lyupz are fake and designed to steal the personal details of members of the public.

IRCC debunked the claim

Further research shows that the organisation responsible for the issuance of Canada visas, IRCC, issued a disclaimer on Friday 5th November 2022 on their official Twitter handle to debunk the claim.

IRCC stated that the viral post claiming that Canada is welcoming one million immigrants from Nigeria is false and “the immigration program referenced does not exist.”

Likewise, the official website has no information about the claim.

 Verdict

Findings have shown that Canada is not issuing visa Lottery. The claim and link of Canada giving out one million visas to immigrants from Nigeria is INCORRECT.

The link is malicious and the department in charge of the issuance of Canada Visa has also debunked the claim.

This report was produced under the ROUNDCHECK Volunteer Network cohort II.