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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Immigration fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about immigration. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

1,620 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYImmigration

Indian government refused visas to American citizens intending to visit Manipur

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a viral news clip presented as evidence that India refused visas to American citizens seeking to visit Manipur amid violence there. FACTLY’s review identifies the clip as an older report about a different matter: visas for delegates from the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). It says that report originated in March 2016 and was unrelated to the violence in Manipur. To trace the clip, the review says it noted the CBN News logo and searched for the original footage on CBN News’s official YouTube channel. The review reports that the clip was uploaded on 10 March 2016, with a description about religious attacks in India. Its account says USCIRF was prohibited from visiting India after the Indian government denied visas, allegedly in response to an earlier attack on a Pentecostal church in Chhattisgarh. This identifies the subject and setting of the footage as distinct from the claimed Manipur visit. The review also distinguishes the visa story from a U.S. travel alert issued in May 2023: the alert advised U.S. citizens in Manipur to exercise caution because of protests and violence, but it was not evidence that a delegation had sought to visit or that India had refused visas for such a visit. FACTLY says it found no reports of either event. The clip’s 2016 provenance and its USCIRF/Chhattisgarh context therefore do not substantiate the claim that visas were refused to Americans intending to visit Manipur.

FACTLYImmigration

Indians are eligible for the financial assistance offered by Irish government for moving to one of its offshore islands

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

FACTLY examined a social-media claim that Indians could receive Irish government financial assistance to relocate to one of Ireland’s offshore islands. The review distinguishes the island-support policy from immigration: it says the “Our Living Islands” policy offers financial support to people relocating to qualifying properties, but does not create a route for foreign nationals to move to Ireland or provide them with a grant merely for doing so. It reports that foreign nationals may move to the islands, but receive no grant and remain subject to Ireland’s ordinary residency requirements. The review describes the policy as a 10-year strategy for about 30 sparsely populated offshore islands. To qualify for support, an applicant must acquire and possess a property built before 1993 that has been unoccupied for at least two years; the grant can be spent on building work, including structural improvements or redecoration. These conditions concern eligible property and renovation work, not a payment for marrying an Irish person or an offer of relocation visas. For the eligibility question, FACTLY reports that an official from the Embassy of Ireland to India said applications were available only to residents of Ireland with appropriate immigration permissions, and that the policy was not open to non-EU/EEA nationals living outside Ireland. The review therefore concludes that Indians living outside Ireland are not eligible for these grants. Its update also says the government had not announced the separate scheme circulating online that purportedly offered money for marrying an Irish woman.