The Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (“IRPR“) provide that an immigration officer may issue a negative substituted evaluation and refuse an application where the officer is not satisfied that a provincial nomination certificate is an appropriate indicator of whether an applicant will be able to successfully establish themselves economically in Canada. Subsections 87(3) and (4) of the Regulations state that: Substitution of evaluation (3) If the fact that the foreign national is named in a [provincial nomination certificate] is not a sufficient indicator of whether they may become economically established in Canada and an officer has consulted the government that issued the certificate, the officer may substitute for the criteria set out in subsection (2) their evaluation of the likelihood of the ability of the foreign national to become economically established in Canada. Concurrence (4) An evaluation made under subsection (3) requires the concurrence of a second officer. I have reproduced below an excerpt from the recently decided Federal Court decision Kousar v. Canada, 2014 FC 12, which illustrates this point. Because Kousar was a Federal Court case, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (“IRCC”) refusal reasons become part of the public record. Accordingly, while I was not the lawyer involved with either the initial … Read More