Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

June 30, 2017 Interview on AM770 on so-called "Lost Canadians"

Whitney Deane: … someone who's been a Canadian since he was three years old, all of sudden, having to go through that immigration process. Here's that audio. Speaker 2: My grandparents moved here in 1948, took a boat all the way from England to Halifax and then took a train all the way across Canada to Calgary where they eventually settled. That's where he grew up. He grew up in Calgary. He lived his entire life, all his memories are of Canada. Yeah. He grew up, god, with nothing to indicate that he wasn't. He went to school here. He graduated. He got his first job. He got married. He had kids and homes. He had his driver's license, all of this stuff. None of this was really an issue until he retired to British Columbia a couple years ago with his wife Deb. Then when he went to get his driver's license renewed and replaced with a British Columbia driver's license, they took his Alberta license and informed him that they couldn't give him a BC license because he wasn't a Canadian citizen. There was definitely a shock to him. He no real idea about it. Of course, it's... Read more →

Cash for Jobs and Immigration Scheme is Common in Canada

It was a pleasure being interviewed and quoted for CBC investigative reporter Geoff Leon's newest piece into the (rampant) cash-for-jobs-immigration scheme. When I read Mr. Leon's first piece, I was impressed -to say the least -with his efforts to uncover, detail and document these practices; I was however, not surprised. Cash has been exchanged for LMIA/Arranged Employment/Job Offer ever since employment in Canada was linked to Permanent Residency; it confers a huge leg up for an application for permanent residency (whether a Federal Economic Class or a Provincial Nominee Program). Hardly a day goes by without someone inquiring whether we provide this service and it's clear that there are many that do. Calgary immigration lawyer Raj Sharma says Canadian permanent residency is being sold like a commodity, at great profit, for those willing to bend the rules. ... None of this is surprising to Raj Sharma, a Calgary immigration lawyer who used to work for the immigration refugee board as a hearing officer. "Wherever you have this hot economy and favourable immigration climate, you're gonna see this type of action," he said. He said this is precisely the sort of thing they've been seeing for years in Alberta. ... Sharma... Read more →

Blogpost: SCAM Alert - Calls Relating to Deportation

Recently several of our clients have received calls from numbers listed in the United States (specifically from the 740 Area Code in Ohio) indicating that a warrant has been issued for their arrest by the "IRS" and for the clients to call back immediately to ensure they are not immediately arrested. These are scam calls and the likely purpose is to obtain personal information or even payment information from the individuals contacted to commit fraud against them. Given the fear such calls tend to engender and the lack of any legal basis for such calls, we thought it might be helpful to understand what is likely to happen when immigration wishes to speak with someone in Canada. (1) Immigration or the CBSA, depending on where the file is at, will send a letter or call to setup an interview. In many cases the interview is to determine if someone is in Canada. In some cases the interview will be scheduled to issue a removal order, in other cases it is simply to determine admissibility, in other cases it would be to serve a PRRA on an individual who is eligible; (2) Do not panic if you receive a call or... Read more →

Interview with Danielle Smith on AM770 Discussing the Refugee Backlog

June 15, 2017 Danielle Smith: ... I want to get into this issue with Raj Sharma who knows how the system works and maybe can help explain to us what on earth is wrong with these delays. Raj Sharma is a Calgary immigration lawyer and he joins me now. Raj, thanks so much for being with me. Raj Sharma: Good morning. Danielle Smith: I called you to talk about this issue about this report that has now come out of the Immigration Refugee Board saying that we have such huge backlogs, we're not catching up. If things continue at this rate, by 2021 we're going to have a hundred and ninety-two thousand, seven hundred claims in the queue, a wait of approximately 11 years, and it's going to cost three billion dollars to support people on different social supports. What on earth is going on here? Raj Sharma: A couple of things is at fault here, and it's one of those unique situations where we can blame both the Liberals and the Conservatives for the predicament that we're facing right now. I used to actually work for the Immigration Refugee Board. I used to be a Refugee Protection Officer in... Read more →

Misrepresentation Explained - A Video

Misrepresentation is broadly defined under the Act; the system is predicated on individuals being truthful and forthcoming. I've been doing this for almost 15 years and my clients still surprise me with a new fact scenario. Don't accept advice from anyone (even a lawyer or a consultant) to do so; the consequences of misrepresentation reverberate for years. Read more →