Subsection 25(1) of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act provides immigration officers with the flexibility to grant on humanitarian and compassionate (“H&C“) exemptions to overcome the requirement of obtaining a permanent residence visa from abroad and/or to overcome class eligibility requirements and/or inadmissibilities. H&C applications may be based on a number factors, including: establishment in Canada; ties to Canada; the … Read More
Restrictions on H&C
Section 25 of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act provides that applicants can seek humanitarian & compassionate relief from the harsh application of other portions of Canadian immigration legislation. When the IRPA was created s. 25 was short two paragraphs, and read: 25. (1) The Minister shall, upon request of a foreign national who is inadmissible or … Read More
Cessation of Refugee Status
There are 2 ways that refugee protection can be removed. A person can cease to hold their refugee status if, for example, they voluntarily reavail themselves of the protection of their country of nationality or obtain protection from another country. They can also have their refugee status vacated if they obtained that status by directly … Read More
Distinguishing PRRA and H&C
Failed refugee claimants, and some other types of inadmissible people within Canada, often submit both Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) applications, as well as Humanitarian & Compassionate (H&C) ones.
War Deserters, Refugee Status and H&C
Being a war deserter does not in of itself mean that either a refugee claim or an application for permanent residency based on humanitarian & compassionate (“H&C“) grounds will succeed. Hinzman On July 6, 2010,the Federal Court of Appeal (the “FCA“) released its decision in Hinzman v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2010 FCA 177 (“Hinzman“) Hinzman … Read More
Supreme Court Issues Decision in Kanthasamy
On December 10, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its most significant immigration judgment in almost twenty years. Its decision in Kanthasamy v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) will likely result in visa officers assessing applications for Canadian permanent residence on humanitarian & compassionate grounds in a much more holistic and equitable manner than previously. … Read More
Joseph v. Canada and the Difficulty of H&C Assessments
I have previously written about the upcoming Supreme Court of Canada decision in Jeyakannan Kanthasamy v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in which the Supreme Court will address the following question: What is the scope of the humanitarian & compassionate discretion in s. 25 of theImmigration and Refugee Protection Act: is it limited to cases of “unusual … Read More
The Jurisdiction of the IAD in Considering Procedural Fairness in 117(9)(d) Cases
On April 25, I blogged about how the Federal Court had certified the following question involving s. 117(9)(d) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (“R179(9)(d)”): In light of sections 72(2)(a), 63(1) and 65 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, S.C. 2001, c. 27, and the case of Somodi v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), 2009 FCA 288 (CanLII), [2010] 4 F.C.R. 26 … Read More
Adult Children, Disabled Adults, and the Best Interests of the Child Analysis
“Every child is a dependent but not every dependent is a child”. Individuals who apply for Canadian permanent residency can request that visa officers consider humanitarian & compassionate factors to exempt them from general immigration requirements. Such factors can include the best interests of children. Pursuant to Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal in Hawthorne v. … Read More
Ministers Instructions Resulting From Changes to s. 25 H&C Applications
On Saturday, August 14, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC“) released Ministers Instructions regarding proposed changes to the Immigrations and Refugee Protection Regulations (the “Regulations“) that will correspond to changes to humanitarian & compassionate (“H&C“) applications under s. 25 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (“IRPA“) that resulted from the Balanced Refugee Reform Act (“Bill C-11“). … Read More