Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

RPD Oral Decision Overview

How the RPD Member will be structuring oral decisions (based on training received when I was a RPO in November 2003): rpd oral decisions brought to you by Livescribe Read more →

All Work and No Play ...

Convention Refugee Framework of Analysis

Framework of analysis - very handy for refugee claims cr framework of analysis brought to you by Livescribe Read more →

A month in the life of ...

My calendar for September ... sept calender brought to you by Livescribe Read more →

Sharma Harsanyi Opens Vancouver Office

Sharma Harsanyi has expanded to the beautiful city of Vancouver BC. The office is located in Coal Harbor, at Suite 1410 - 1130 West Pender. Telephone: 604-210-1816. The focus of the Vancouver office will be primarily immigration litigation - refugee hearings before the Refugee Protection Division, immigration/sponsorship/removal order appeals before the Immigration Appeal Division, and Federal Court matters. Read more →

Spousal sponsorship appeal - factors considered by the Immigration Appeal Division

Just returned from the IAD. Appeal against a refusal by an overseas visa officer to issue a permanent resident visa to my client's wife. Visa officer had felt that the relationship was not genuine, or was entered into for the purposes of acquiring a right/status under the Act. The IAD generally looks at the same types of factors in such appeals, including: the length of the marriage; conduct after the marriage; levels of continuing contact/communication; etc. FACTORS FOR GENUINE RELATIONSHIP brought to you by Livescribe Read more →

Alnoor Kassam: from possible removal from Canada to Mayoral Candidate

Review of admissibility hearing of mayoral candidate Alnoor Kassam Read more →

Refugee Quote from Maldonado

Maldonado -- reads in part as follows: ‘When an applicant swears to the truth of certain allegations, this creates a presumption that those allegations are true unless there be reason to doubt their truthfulness’ ... Read more →

Psychological considerations on the concept of atrocity and the compelling reasons exception

I am working on a paper with Dr. Hap Davis IV on the psychological considerations on the concept of atrocity and the compelling reasons exception contained in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. A “Compelling Reason” is an exception under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. It provides an avenue to a refugee to be protected even if changes in the socio-political landscape of the country of origin makes it no longer possible for the individual to say that removal from Canada would subject him or her to danger of torture, cruel or unusual treatment or punishment, or a risk to life. Through jurisprudence the Federal Court in Canada indicates that if a person has suffered “appalling” or “atrocious” treatment, then this person may apply for the compelling reasons exception to the Act even if a return would otherwise be deemed safe. However, beyond the provision of synonymous and subjective terms such as "appalling" or "atrocious" the Court has not provided sufficient direction to the Refugee Protection Division. We hope to provide a review of of empirical psychological literature by which mental disorder and loss of instrumental, social, emotional and cognitive functioning in a claimant may be used to describe... Read more →

'Usual practice' of immigration officer sufficient evidence of conduct

'Usual practice' of immigration officer is sufficient evidence of conduct: 20 Ms. Burrows, now a senior officer with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, has been an immigration officer for 20 years. Ms. Burrows testified that her usual practice when recording applicants' answers is to put a "check-mark" in the appropriate "Yes" or "No" box that corresponded to the question on the application form. Ms. Burrows would then sign her initials "DB" and the date of the interview next to the "check-mark". As an evidentiary issue, testimony concerning one's usual practice is admissible and corroborative of evidence of conduct in a specific case: see, for example, Savoie v. Bouchard, [1983] N.B.J. No. 66; (1983), 49 N.B.R. (2d) 424 at paragraphs 27-37 (N.B.C.A.). Read more →

Library of Congress and this blog

To Whom It May Concern: The United States Library of Congress has selected your website for inclusion in the historic collection of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs. The Library of Congress preserves the Nation's cultural artifacts and provides enduring access to them. The Library's traditional functions, acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to the Congress and the American people to foster education and scholarship, extend to digital materials, including websites. The following URL has been selected for archiving: immlawyer.blogs.com/my_weblog We request your permission to collect your website and add it to the Library's research collections. In order to properly archive this URL, and potentially other URLs of interest on your site, we would appreciate your permission to archive both this URL and other portions of your site. With your permission, the Library of Congress or its agent will engage in the collection of content from your website at regular intervals over time and make this collection available to researchers both at Library facilities and, by special arrangement, to scholarly research institutions. In addition, the Library hopes that you share its vision of preserving Internet materials and permitting researchers from across the world to access them.... Read more →