Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

The "Genuineness" of the Marriage...

How can you determine a marriage is genuine? The Immigration Appeal Division has canvassed a number of factors including: he intent of the parties to the marriage, the length of the relationship, the amount of time spent together, conduct at the time of meeting, at the time of an engagement and/or the wedding, behaviour subsequent to a wedding, the level of knowledge of eath other's relationship histories, level of continuing contact and communication, the provision of financial support, the knowledge of and sharing of responsibility for the care of children brought into the marriage, the knowledge of and contact with extended families of the parties, as well as the level of knowledge of each other's daily lives. Read more →

Defending or Prosecuting Marriage Fraud

Calgary Immigration lawyer Raj Sharma canvasses the types of marriage fraud, and the procedure once marriage fraud is suspected, from investigation, the writing of a "section 44" report, a hearing before the Immigration Division and the possibility of an appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division. Read more →

Our Initial Experience with the New Refugee Claim Determination Process

Calgary Immigration lawyer Raj Sharma canvasses the new refugee determination procedure. Read more →

Canada Welcomed Record Number of International Students in 2012

Calgary immigration lawyer Raj Sharma comments on the record number of international students that Canada welcomed in 2012. Increasing the number of international students and providing a clear pathway for them to become permanent residents is an absolute "no-brainer". Read more →

Our Summary and Thoughts on Jason Kenney's Removing 'Foreign' Criminals Faster Act

Calgary immigration lawyer Raj Sharma reviews Jason Kenney's new and atrociously entitled Removing Foreign Criminals Faster Act. Hard cases make bad law. Basing a law on outlier cases and eliminating discretion is wrong. Read more →

No Surprise - Mexico added to Designated Country list

Look for a lifting of the visa requirement for Mexican nationals... From the CIC website: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2013/2013-02-14.asp ... "The Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, announced today that the list of Designated Countries of Origin is expanding to include an additional eight countries. As part of the improvements to Canada’s new asylum system that came into effect on December 15, 2012, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act included the authority to designate countries of origin—democratic countries that offer state protection, have active human rights and civil society organizations, and do not normally produce refugees. “Faster processing of asylum claims from generally safe countries is an essential feature of Canada’s new faster and fairer refugee system,” said Minister Kenney. “Our new system provides protection more quickly to genuine refugees, while removing individuals whose claims are rejected from the country faster.” The second list of designated countries includes: Mexico Israel (which excludes Gaza and the West Bank) Japan Norway Iceland New Zealand Australia Switzerland Including the designation of these eight countries, effective February 15, 2013, 35 countries appear on the designated countries list, which already includes most countries in the European Union (EU), Croatia and the United States. Under the new... Read more →

What happens when you mix Incompetent counsel and Deportation

Calgary immigration lawyer Raj Sharma writes on what happens when you mix incompetent legal advice with deportation. Read more →

Judicial Review of an "Unintelligible" RPD decision

Calgary immigration lawyer Raj Sharma writes on an "unintelligible" decision by the Refugee Protection Division. The RPD found that a Zikri (a religious minority from Pakistan) who was the subject of an arrest warrant and a blasphemy charge, was not at risk upon return to that failed state. The Federal Court overturned the decision and remitted it to another decision maker. Read more →