On December 1, 2016, the Government of Canada lifted the requirement that Mexican nationals obtain a temporary resident visa (a “TRV”) prior to travelling to Canada. As with all TRV exempt travellers, excluding Americans, Mexican nationals are still required to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation (an “ETA”) prior to boarding aircraft to travel to Canada. The Government of Canada has also committed to gradually expanding eTA eligibility in 2017 to citizens of Bulgaria, Romania, and Brazil. Electronic Travel Authorisation The eTA is a new electronic document requirement for visa-exempt air travellers to Canada, excluding citizens of the United States. Travellers apply online for an eTA by providing basic biographical, passport and personal information, and includes questions about their health, criminal history, and travel history. An automated system then compares this information against immigration and enforcement databases to determine if the traveller is admissible to Canada. The vast majority of applications are approved automatically, with a small percentage referred to an officer for review. Typical reasons for a further review include a previous denial of admission to Canada, a criminal record, or a pending permanent residence application. The cost to apply for an eTA is $7.00. Applicants must have a … Read More
The Difference between an H&C and a TRP Application
In Mpoyi v Canada (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship), 2018 FC 251, affirmed in Lee v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), the Federal Court of Canada stated: The Officer was correct to conclude that he lacked the authorization to consider the Applicants’ alternative TRP request. However, his assertion that a separate application should be submitted for the TRP request constitutes a reviewable error. The Officer should have forwarded this request to the proper decision-maker upon refusing the Applicants’ application for permanent residence in Canada on H&C grounds. For this reason, and with the consent of the Respondent, the Applicants’ judicial review is granted on this issue. I find the H&C decision to be reasonable. The judicial review in relation to that matter is dismissed. In Kaur v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2024 FC 337, the Federal Court held that the best interests of a child analysis in H&C jurisprudence does not apply in the temporary resident permit context.
De Novo Jurisdiction and the IAD
“Does the Immigration Appeal Division have an obligation to determine the genuineness of a marriage on a de novo appeal from a removal order on the basis of a misrepresentation, when the genuineness of the marriage was the misrepresentation alleged in the subsection 44(1) report and was relevant to a determination by the IAD of whether the person concerned made the misrepresentation in issue before it?” This was the question before the Federal Court of Appeal in Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v. Peirovdinnabi, 2010 FCA 267. In answering it, the Court reflected on the nature of a de novo hearing. The matter pertained to an individual whose application for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds was granted, in part because of the applicant’s marriage at the time. The application was approved despite the fact that the applicant’s ex-spouse approached immigration authorities advising them that the marriage was a sham entered into solely for immigration purposes. Shortly thereafter, the applicant applied to sponsor a spouse. This got the attention of immigration authorities, who made a s. 44(1) report to the effect that the applicant was inadmissible for having made a misrepresentation in his H&C application, and that the marriage was … Read More
Extending a COPR or a Landing Visa
Visa officers have the discretion to extend the time limits on visa that have been issued. The 2018 decision in Austin v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) illustrates this point. There, a person was issued a permanent resident visa that expired 35 days after it was issued. The person booked an airline ticket, however, she was unable to depart as scheduled because her car broke down. She booked a new ticket but was not allowed to board a plane to Canada because her visa had expired. She then wrote to Canadian immigration officials asking that they extend the validity period of her visa. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada refused, writing that: An immigrant visa was issued to you with an expiry date of October 25, 2017. The onus was on you to travel prior to the expiry date of your visa or to notify this office if you were unable to travel prior to the date of expiry. Your medicals have now expired and we are unable to re-open your file. We regret to advise that your file is now closed and no further processing can be carried out. The internal Global Case Management System notes further stated that: FILE REVIEWED Rec’d the … Read More
Statistics on Asylum Claimants
In this page I will be posting assorted statistics on asylum claims that I find interesting. 1) In 2010 the rate of asylum claimants claiming social assistance was 84% in Ontario, 79% in Quebec, 57% in BC, and 48% in BC. 2) Interesting chart showing asylum claimants based on country of citizenship and province of claim in 2013-14. 3) Charts Showing the Increase in Claims from Nigeria 4) Refugee Claims Analysis Report (RCAR) 2020 Here is the 2020 Refugee Claims Analysis Report. 5) Number of Claims
Rehabilitation Applications
Section 36(3)(c) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act provides the legislative basis for rehablitation applications. It states that: 36(3)(c) the matters referred to in paragraphs (1)(b) and (c) and (2)(b) and (c) do not constitute inadmissibility in respect of a permanent resident or foreign national who, after the prescribed period, satisfies the Minister that they have been rehabilitated or who is a member of a prescribed class that is deemed to have been rehabilitated. IRCC Rehabilitation Guide The following PDF is IRCC’s United States Criminality Assessment Guide. As well, here is an internal IRCC New York memo which provides context on the number of rehabilitation applications that they receive. Where To Submit IRCC’s preference is that rehabilitation applications be submitted separate from permanent or temporary residence applications. Statistics Jurisprudence In Hadad v. Canada (The Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism), 2011 FC 1503, the Federal Court affirmed several important principles of rehabilitation applications, including that: The Minister should take into consideration the unique facts of each particular case and consider whether the overall situation warrants a finding that the individual has been rehabilitated; rehabilitation is forward looking; and an officer commits a reviewable error if they too much importance to … Read More
Access to Information Act Requests
This video explains the benefits of Access to Information Act requests. The following chart is a helpful summary of the exemptions to disclosure under the Access to Information Act.
Inadequacy of State Protection
Many refugee claimants are not based on situations where the state is the agent of persecution. Rather, the source of risk is a quasi-governmental authority or private actors. In such cases, the issue turns to one of the adequacy of state protection. Ward v. Canada The leading decision on the issue of state protection in the context of refugee and pre-removal risk assessment decisions is the Supreme Court of Canada decision Canada (Attorney General) v. Ward, [1993] 2 S.C.R. 689. There, the Supreme Court of Canada held that a state’s inability to protect its citizens is the crucial element in determining whether a claimant’s fear of persecution is well-founded as it determines the reasonableness of his or her unwillingness to seek the protection of his or her state of nationality. Specifically, the Supreme Court noted that: Having established that the claimant has a fear, the Board is, in my view, entitled to presume that persecution will be likely, and the fear well-founded, if there is an absence of state protection. The presumption goes to the heart of the inquiry, which is whether there is a likelihood of persecution. But I see nothing wrong with this, if the Board is satisfied that … Read More
Intra-Company Transferees and Start-Ups
Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (“IRCC“) International Mobility Program provides that a foreign worker may be issued a work permit without the employer needing a Labour Market Impact Assessment if the employee meets the requirements of the Intra-Company Transferees (“ICT“) program. Although some free trade agreements contain specific requirements, the general ICT rules applicable to citizens of all countries are that ICTs must: be currently employed by a multi-national company and be seeking entry to work in a parent, a subsidiary, a branch, or an affiliate of that enterprise; be transferring to an enterprise that has a qualifying relationship with the enterprise in which they are currently employed, and will be undertaking employment at a legitimate and continuing establishment of that company (where 18–24 months can be used as a reasonable minimum guideline); be being transferred to a position in an executive, senior managerial, or specialized knowledge capacity; have been employed continuously (via payroll or by contract directly with the company), by the company that plans to transfer them outside Canada in a similar full-time position (not accumulated part-time) for at least one year in the three-year period immediately preceding the date of initial application; and be coming to Canada for a temporary period only. … Read More
Citizenship Certificates
Any Canadian citizen may apply for a citizenship certificate. The application package can be found on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC“) website here. The current standard processing time is 5 months. If someone lives outside Canada or the United States, and has applied through a Canadian embassy, high commission or consulate, it may take an additional 2 to 4 months beyond the estimated processing times to process your application. The CIC website does list ways to expedite processing. We have below reproduced CIC’s internal master checklist for citizenship certificate applications in the hopes that this will help you structure your application in a way that allows CIC to process it as fast as possible. Here are the IRCC New York instructions on processing citizenship matters.