Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

A hectic Thursday for lawyers at this office with three refugee hearings; all claims against Afghanistan. Fortunately all were accepted. Another detention review for a Chinese national on the same day; she's been released in time to join her family for the Lunar New Year. Read more →

Stewart Sharma Harsanyi lawyers were victorious in all 4 appearances yesterday before every division of the Immigration and Refugee Board. Detention review for a national of Vietnam; Refugee hearings against Mexico and Ethiopia; Spousal sponsorship appeal for India. Three more hearings today and I think that might be it (for this week anyway!). Read more →

Blog Posting - New Budget and Further Immigration Reforms

It is expected that the Conservative government will mark another budget with further legislation in other areas, including immigration and citizenship, in February 2014. The expected changes are likely to include longer residency requirements for persons to apply for citizenship as well as a crackdown on "birth tourism" and "Canadians of convenience". It's highly questionable that the immigration changes constitute best practices. At this point we have reached a predictable and sad pattern with respect to immigration reforms in this sphere. Step 1: Conservative politcos rail against abuse of Canadians generosity in media; Step 2: Politicians raise spectre of reforms to "crackdown" on the cheats, swindlers and frauds who abuse this generosity; Step 3: Politicians use anecdotal evidence in lieu of actual metrics or statistics to convince public of neccessity of immigration reforms and invent dollar figures out of thin air to bolster their case; Step 4: Majority government rams through reforms in face of muddled and weak opposition as well as complicit or skeptical and/or docile public. Step 5: Reforms result in blanket refusals, tough immigration talk without necessary budget for immigration enforcement and ballyhoed shorter processing times. As per the usual pattern, there have been no studies put... Read more →

Preparing for a Spousal Sponsorship Interview

Just finished preparing my clients in India for their immigration spousal sponsorship interview at the visa office in Chandigarh tomorrow. In my opinion, there is a huge advantage in preparing for the immigration interview rather than walking in cold. The sponsor has been married twice before and is seeking to sponsor her husband from India. The issues for the visa officer will be the incompatibility in terms of marital history (the wife has been married before, and the husband has not), the age difference (7 or so years in favour of the wife) and the fact that the wife has two children from her first marriage. These differences may not appear to be significant (from a Western perspective) at first glance, however, I have found that visa officers (especially from overseas visa offices in Asia) rely on stereotypical views and would find these differences to be 'red-flags'. You don't need an immigration lawyer to prepare the forms. However, if you're relationship raises any red flags or is unusual in any way, hiring an experienced immigration lawyer could be beneficial. The key is to present a cogent and detailed narrative of the relationship history in the immigration sponsorship application itself -... Read more →

Blog Posting - "Commitment" to Vacate or Cessate Refugee Claims

A recent Access to Information Request has revealed that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is committed to investigating and then referring a minimum of 875 vacation or cessation cases per year for persons previously found to be Convention Refugee or Persons in Need of Protection. "Vacation" or "cessation" means taking away a refugee's status - after they've been found to be at risk in their country of origin. For protected persons in Canada this is scary news, even if they've gone on to become permanent residents or citizens. The CBSA and its officers at airports throughout Canada will be scrutinizing the travel history of protected persons as well as any discrepancies regarding addresses, places of residence or other issues which were which they may consider germane in their claims for protection and subsequent actions. The idea of having a quota of 875 cases, at minimum, is both absurd and unjustifiable. The CBSA has not provided any statistics or other evidence indicating that there are 875 cases per year where a protected person either reavailed themselves of the protection of the country from which they claimed protection or misrepresented a material fact that would lead to their claims being refused... Read more →

Komagata Maru: Speaking Truth to Power

Late in December of last year, I was approached by Avnish Nanda, a third year law student at Osgoode Hall. Nanda has taken the lead in putting together a commemoration of the Komagata Maru's centennial. The Komagata Maru Incident relates to the arrival of a Japanese steamship carrying 376 Sikh, Muslim and Hindu migrants off the coast of British Columbia. The passengers chartered the vessel to challenge Canada's exclusionary immigration laws and policies. Nanda requested that I provide a piece that reflects upon the impact of the KM incident on their identity; specifically how the incident informed their understanding of what it means to be a Canadian. The invitation is open to Canadians of all backgrounds and experiences. My contribution was finalized earlier this month and is up on the Komagata Maru blog. It can be found here. Excerpts from the post: Having been born in Canada, with my parents arriving in the early 70's, I was (at times painfully) aware that I was a minority but didn't always see the relevance of events that occurred so many years prior to my birth. Aside from isolated incidents of ignorance growing up, I had no personal experience of systemic or institutional... Read more →

Authorization to Return to Canada

If you've been ordered deported from Canada you will need an authorization to return. The Authorization to Return to Canada is not issued routinely; in our experience it works best when used in conjunction with an application for permanent residence (if you are being sponsored by your spouse or children back to Canada for example). When you apply for an ARC, it's important to have regard to the relevant CIC Manual (OP 1 at page 24 onwards). The Manual indicates that the applicant "must demonstrate that there are compelling reasons" for the issuance of an ARC; demonstrate that they pose a minimal risk to Canadians and to Canadian society. Most importantly, "merely meeting eligibility requirements" is not sufficient for the grant of an ARC. Officers will assess (among others) the following factors: The severity of the IRPA violation; The history of the applicant's conduct and cooperation with CIC; The reasons for the applicant's request to return to Canada; and The length of time since the IRPA infraction; Notably, if the applicant has a right of appeal before the IAD can appeal a negative ARC decision to that tribunal as well. Read more →

Is Canada Accepting Too Many Immigrants?

I debated Martin Collacott (of the Fraser Institute and the Centre for Immigration Reform) earlier this week. A recent release from the Centre for Immigration Reform argues that we accept far too many immigrants to this country. It does not however propose what the right number should be. Collacott relies on a study from Professor Grubel (his colleague at the Fraser Institute) that states that immigrants cost Canadians $23 billion a year. The study has been reviewed and been found to contain inconsistencies and errors by SFU economists (countervailing information is provided by Mohsen Javdani and Krishna Pendakur). Collacott of course defended the Grubel study and stands by the numbers (which if true, would lead to the conclusion that Canada should not accept any immigrants since they cost us too much money). My point: there are lies, damned lies and statistics. Studies regarding fiscal transfers to immigrants have to be taken with a grain of salt. Such studies depend greatly on what is measures (indeed, what can be measured, or can be quantified) and involve therefore, a subjective judgment call on the part of the author. Immigration policy should work both for the new and prospective immigrant as well as... Read more →

Blog Posting - More Flexible Landing Possibilities for PRs

While we tend to sometimes focus on the mistaken policies, guidelines and rules set by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, we would note that from time to time positive changes are effected. Recently, CIC has made changes to policy that allows individuals with legal status in Canada, and who have been granted permanent residence, to be landed at inland CIC offices. The relevant excerpt from the Operational Bulletin is below: The CoPR is evidence that an officer was satisfied that, at the time of issuance, the foreign national named in the document was not inadmissible and met the selection criteria and requirements of the Act and Regulations. Most applicants for permanent residence have applied for and obtained a PR visa (if required) and a CoPR from a Canadian visa office outside Canada. These applicants are required to present their document to a Border Services Officer (BSO) upon arrival in Canada. Applicants who already have legal status in Canada, however, can either go to an inland CIC office (after calling the CIC Call Centre for a landing appointment) or a Port of Entry (POE) – if they have a PR visa counterfoil or if they are exempt from this requirement – to... Read more →

I'll be discussing immigration with Martin Collacott of the Fraser Institute and the Centre for Immigration Reform tonight; broadcast tomorrow on CTV2/Alberta Primetime. Read more →

In our practice, we are called upon to attend upon various incarceral institutions, including the Calgary Remand Centre and "Spy Hill". During my attendance at the latter institution, I met with a client facing deportation for serious criminal convictions. Luckily for him, it turned out that he was in fact a Canadian (having been born abroad to a Canadian parent). That fact stymied his removal from this country. Born an American, I'm sure he was relieved to find out about his dual citizenship. Perhaps there's a lesson there for US Senator Ted Cruz? Read more →

Sponsoring Parents and Grandparents? 5 Things You Need to Know

Canadian citizens and permanent residents can once again sponsor their parents or grandparents to Canada. The program, suspended in November 2011, re-opened January 2, 2014. There are a number of important changes. I would recommend perusing Operational Bulleting 561. 1. CIC has imposed a cap of 5,000 complete applications; 2. The sponsor needs to meet higher income thresholds (30% above current) to be established only with documents issued by CRA (no more T4's) and for 3 years prior to the application; 3. CIC will process applications on the first in, first out principle - that means these new applications will be placed in queue after the applications submitted pre-Nov 2011; 4. No appeals to the Immigration Appeal Division for applications rejected because sponsor does not meet income eligibility or applications returned because the cap has been reached; and 5. No change (yet) as to the age limits for accompanying dependents of the applicants (brothers and sisters of the sponsor). Related articles Parent, grandparent immigration program reopens Ottawa accepting another 5,000 parent and grandparent immigration applications after two-year freeze Canada accepting 5,000 parent, grandparent sponsorship applications Read more →

Changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

I was on the CBC Eyeopener on December 31, 2013 discussing the recent changes to the temporary foreign worker program. The link to the podcast can be found here. Changes to temporary foreign worker program - Calgary Eyeopener - CBC Player In brief, the changes allow the government to do spot checks without warrant in non-residential work places. Further they can place non-compliant or abusive employers on a black list, denying them use of the foreign worker program. We've seen the blacklist before. It's been up since 2011 and has no employers listed. I'll let readers draw their own conclusions. These changes may be mere sound and fury, and lack substance. I would like to see abusive employers held to account. Related articles Ottawa cracks down on temporary foreign workers Ottawa cracks down on temporary foreign workers as new policy goes into effect Government crackdown on temporary foreign workers set to begin Feds launch crack down on temporary foreign workers, but critics slam it as 'bad policy' Read more →