Agencies providing fake papers for overseas visas

By Zhao Yanrong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-14 07:55

People line up at the US embassy in Beijing to get their visas. [Zou Hong / China Daily]

Faking employment certificates for travelers seeking foreign tourist visas has become an under-table rule for travel agencies engaging in overseas travel in Beijing, industry sources said.

"I know that my behavior was inappropriate, but it is an under-table rule," said Wang Yongli, 41, who started Beijing Lucky View Holiday International Travel Service Co in 2007.

He was accused at Chaoyang district court of supplying fake work certificates for clients applying for a US tourist visa.

The US embassy in Beijing told METRO in an e-mail: "We are extremely concerned that paid visa consultants take advantage of our customers by charging them large sums of money, and then they further harm the customer by giving poor advice that results in a visa refusal."

Wang supplied two employment certificates from the Beijing Luyuan Chengxin Technology Company to two women from Shandong province in September 2009. The US embassy recognized the certificates as fakes and reported the matter to the local police, judge Dong Geng told METRO after the hearing.

Wang said at the trial that he used to own the company with his ex-wife and kept the company's seal after the company was sold a year ago.

"The two women were introduced by one of my friends. I thought I was just doing a favor for a friend," he said.

The Beijing municipal tourism administration refused to comment on the travel agencies' behavior, because "it is a sensitive issue in the industry," Song Jun, a spokesman for the bureau, said.

A police officer from the exit and entry bureau said: "If the embassies don't recognize the fake application materials, we won't know without their reporting."

The US embassy informed METRO that they do not release specific figures regarding fake or fraudulent materials, but admitted that the Beijing Fraud Prevention Unit is among the busiest in the world.

The embassy also said that many types of materials are submitted that are later found to be fake, but they stressed that - in many cases - the fake materials submitted were irrelevant to the applicant's visa case.

A former tour guide for overseas trips, who refused to reveal her name, told METRO on Thursday that agencies make good money from the "special service", and that embassies normally can't identify the certificates were fakes.

She said some travelers are unemployed or their employers do not provide certificates, such as bank employees or government officials.

"If an agency cannot help their client to get the employment certification for the visa application, other agencies will. So they lose their clients," she added.

She also said some agencies offered fake certificates even if they knew that their client would overstay.

"If a small number of travelers run away during their overseas travel, the agencies will not lose their overseas business certification.

"But the agency can keep the deposit which could be as much as 60,000 yuan per person," she said.

"So they offer the fake certificates anyway."

Beijing is the home of the largest number of agencies with international business. According to China Tourism News, 1,069 Chinese travel agencies had gained accreditation for overseas travel by the end of last year.