Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

Overview: Annulment and Divorce

**The following was written by Faraz Bawa, one of the lawyers at Stewart Sharma Harsanyi; Faraz's practice includes family law and he has utilized annulments to assist his clients** Annulments are often misunderstood in addressing marital and immigration law problems. Instead of ending an existing marriage, annulments erase the existence of the underlying marriage. Many people confuse annulments and divorces as interchangeable methods of addressing marital breakdown. In countries following traditional Catholicism divorces remain very taboo. In the Philippines, for example, divorce is simply unavailable and one can only proceed with annulment. This is often expensive and time-consuming. People often do not consider that they can often obtain a divorce from Canada instead, even if their spouse is overseas. In contrast, in most other countries, divorce is far more common as a method of dissolving marriages. With the rise of globalization, immigrants from countries such as the Philippines often find themselves unsure how to address marital breakdowns. This uncertainty can often lead to often very serious legal complications in their immigration processes. Put simply, once you are married, you cannot marry someone else, at least in Canadian law. The first marriage must be dissolved first. One cannot simply annul their... Read more →

May 17, 2018 Transcript and Audio: Interview on Allegations that International Students Misled by Their College - CBC Edmonton AM May 17, 2018

Adrienne Pan: Yesterday on Edmonton AM, we heard about a group of international students who are suing their college. The group says they were told that going to Solomon College, a private career college in Edmonton, would help them get work permits after graduation, but that's not how the visa program works. To explain how it does work, we've reached Raj Sharma. He's an immigration lawyer and partner at Stewart Sharma Harsanyi. Good morning. Raj Sharma: Good morning. Adrienne Pan: So, what did these students think they were getting by going to Solomon College? Raj Sharma: Well, most international students that come to Canada hope to, of course, graduate, and at the end of graduation or completion of a program, studies in Canada, there's the holy grail, which is the post-graduate open work permit, and once they have that, most of them ... Or once they have qualifying work experience pursuant to that work permit, a lot of these international students have the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in Canada. Unfortunately, there's a lot of ... Let's say, ... Not enough signal and too much noise. A lot of heat and not enough light, and a lot of individuals... Read more →

May 8, 2018 Raj Sharma Interviewed by Danielle Smith -AM770: Addressing "Irregular" Immigration to Canada

Danielle Smith: Yesterday, as I was on the air, I noticed with one eye, that you had a whole battery of Liberal Cabinet Ministers coming forward to show how tough they were getting on immigration. They showed Ahmed Hussen, who is the Immigration Minister, Marc Garneau came out as well, Transportation Minister. I'm not even sure quite what his angle is. But Ralph Goodale as well, Security Minister, tough talk, and we were playing the clip in the news. But I just thought, "Let me see what this is all about." … Now, I wanna hear from you whether or not you think this is enough. I want you to hear what Goodale has to say and then I want you to hear what Michelle Rempel, my gosh Michelle Rempel is doing some great work on this, isn't she? She's also going to be on Rob's show this afternoon. You'll be able to hear a bit more from her directly, but she is just pushing and pushing and pushing on this issue. So I want to play both of those and then we're going to talk to somebody that's really in the know, someone who actually has to deal with... Read more →

May 1, 2018 Raj Sharma Interview on the Influx of Border Crossers and Canada's Options - Rob Breakenridge of AM770

R Breakenridge: … about the Safe Third Country Agreement, but it's not clear what it is we're trying to achieve here. Now, earlier in the week Conservative PM Michelle Rempel, had proposed the idea of making the agreement apply to the entire border, not just border crossings, something the federal government rejected. So today, federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, saying that aim of changing the agreement would be stem the flow of asylum seekers that have been coming into Canada from the US. Goodale: It's a discussion that we are having with the Americans about the various techniques that could be pursued on both sides of the border to ensure security and integrity. R Breakenridge: So, we're talking to the Americans, but they're not formal talks necessarily? But at the same time it sounds like we are trying to enlist the help of the Americans to address this problem, but do the Americans have a vested interest in helping us resolve this problem? Because if these would-be asylum seekers are leaving the US and coming to Canada, well then they're no longer the American's problem are they? So what are the options that we have in attempting to deal... Read more →

Visa Officer Training Material on Traditions and Customs

That was fast. I received a response to my request for the following records: "Whether visa officers in Delhi are provided with training/materials/reports/documents as to local (Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, etc.) cultural/religious traditions/customs in assessing the genuineness of spousal or common law sponsorships and if they are, details and copies of those training/materials/reports/documents." "Punjabi Culture and Wedding Ceremonies"--> Download Punjabi wedding traditions" Interesting: The concept of Honeymoon did not exist in rural Punjab. However, now many couples from rural Punjab go for outings just for our benefit and to click photos for our sake..." Read more →