Jiajun "Jarvis" Wu, 22, was in Vancouver on a student visa earlier this year when he seized on what appeared to be a golden opportunity to get a job - and eventual permanent residency status - in Canada. But he says his experience with Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program - currently under federal review after controversy over a plan to hire hundreds of Chinese nationals to work in a north-eastern B.C. coal mine - left him traumatized. Wu said his prospective employer tried to charge him twice for the opportunity to work at a fast-food outlet in northern B.C. - once for about $3,000, which was paid through an agent, and later for roughly $19,000. Wu ended up not paying the second amount, worked just two hours at the Robin's Donuts-2-4-1 Pizza outlet in Dawson Creek, and is now back in China living with his parents. B.C. law doesn't permit an employer to "request, share or receive, directly or indirectly" a fee from a prospective employee. The federal government also prohibits what it calls "recruitment" fees. "This was a nightmare that is still haunting me," Wu stated in a formal complaint filed in October with the Employment Standards Branch, part of the B.C. Ministry of Labour, Citizens' Services and Open Government. Wu's complaint is one of three active files involving Surrey resident Jian "David" Gu, owner of the Robin's Donuts-2-4-1 Pizza franchise in Dawson Creek and another that opened recently in Fort Nelson. He also owned a Robin's Donuts in Surrey, but has sold it. Two of the complaints provided to The Vancouver Sun allege that Gu sought more than $20,000 in payments in exchange for jobs in B.C. The Sun is unaware of the details relating to the third complaint, and the B.C. ministry wouldn't make any information public. A fourth complaint against Gu was closed last year following a voluntary settlement between the parties "with no attribution of fault, and no identification of contraventions" of the Employment Standard Act, according to the ministry. Canada's TFW program approved a record 190,842 workers last year, many of them low-skilled labourers destined for fast-food operations in remote communities. "We look into every complaint we receive. Since the (three) complaints (regarding Gu) are open, the ministry cannot comment on the nature of the complaints," a statement from the labour ministry said. "Please note (that) these are only complaints at this point. No violations have been found." Wu alleges that he was verbally scolded and humiliated during his brief work stint in late June at Gu's franchise in Dawson Creek, a small north-eastern B.C. city that is typical of the remote communities where employers say there is a chronic shortage of workers. He also alleges in his complaint that he was charged rent at a rate of $600 a month during the June 30-July 17 period he was in Dawson Creek, living in a rented room but - except for two hours - not working at the franchise. And he is claiming a further $1,200 because Gu refused to pay air travel costs for Wu when he flew from Vancouver to Dawson Creek, and then Dawson Creek to China. His contract stipulated that these costs would be covered by the employer.

Wu's contract with Gu stated explicitly that the employer "shall not recoup from the employee ... any cost." It also stated Wu pay only $350 a month for accommodation. Wu said in an interview earlier this month that he was stuck in Dawson Creek with nothing to do because, he alleges, Gu was demanding an additional $19,000 on top of the initial $3,000 payment. "Because I don't give him that money, so he don't give me that work," Wu said in halting English during a telephone interview. (Gu's January application to the federal government to bring in temporary foreign workers stated that successful applicants "must be fluent in English".) The Vancouver Sun has received a number of complaints in recent weeks about various employers and immigration consultants charging workers hefty fees in exchange for help getting work permits under the TFW program. A TFW permit is invaluable for an aspiring Canadian because it is one of the easiest and quickest ways to get permanent residency status under the B.C. Provincial Nomination Program (PNP). The program was set up by the federal government several years ago to allow provinces to select their own immigrants. B.C. and other provincial governments have regularly demanded an expansion of the PNP, but federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney put limits earlier this year on the program due to concerns about its "integrity". What is unusual about the allegations against Gu is that his critics are prepared to go public. The Vancouver Sun was provided transcripts and digital recordings of conversations between a friend of Wu's, who was acting on his and his parents' behalf, and David Gu and Gu's wife, Susan. A second young Chinese national, Hongda Hu, has also come forward to allege that he had a very similar experience with Gu. He filed a complaint with the B.C. government last month that included transcripts of two taped conversations he had with Gu in which they discussed the payment of just over $3,000 from Hu, 22, to Gu. Hu provided documentation indicating his father made the $3,000 payment directly to Gu, although he later decided not to accept the written job offer - which included a contract stating that the employer couldn't "recoup" recruiting costs - after Gu allegedly told him he would need an additional payment of $20,000. "This time, I just didn't feel right to pay him any more because my visa had already been refused once, although he guaranteed me a two-year work visa," Hu wrote in his complaint. In both the Hu and Wu cases, there are recorded Chinese-language phone conversations involving Gu and, in one instance, his wife. The Sun was provided with English translations that were checked and, where necessary, corrected by a Chinese-speaking reporter with The Sun. In both cases, the recordings included conversations about transferring various amounts of money to Gu.