Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

Making a Refugee Claim Inside Canada

The refugee claim process in Canada is set out in the IRPA. Section 99(3) stipulates that the claim must be made to an officer (and cannot be made by a person subject to a removal order). Claims inside Canada are either those made at a POE or in-land. After notification is made, an officer will determine whether the claim is eligible (s.101(1) of the IRPA). Some individuals are not eligible to make a claim for refugee protection -and eligibility should be canvassed with experienced legal counsel prior to initiating a claim. If the claim is eligible it is referred to the Refugee Protection Division. If the claim is accepted the person becomes a protected person and can apply for PR from within Canada. Note that the government can seek to appeal a positive decision to the Refugee Appeal Division. This happens but is relatively rare. If the claim is refused the failed refugee claimant can seek to appeal to the Refugee Appeal Division (unless they are ineligible for the RAD). The RAD is a substantive appeal and can set aside the RPD decision and substitute the decision that should have been made. A negative RAD can be challenged at the... Read more →

Chart -simplified -FN inside Canada facing allegations of inadmissibility

Remember that a removal order is not necessarily the end; there are remedies and the person concerned should seek out experienced legal counsel --the sooner the better. Read more →

Chart -simplified -PR facing allegations of residency breach

Applicable to PR that has entered Canada; not applicable to those outside Canada. PRs outside Canada facing such allegations may or may not have the ability to travel back to Canada to deal with their appeal. Read more →

Crimmigration -a discussion with Jatin Shory and Ian McKay -Part II

My friend Jatin Shory (who also practices in my area) had asked Ian McKay (an experienced criminal defense lawyer) and myself to present to the CBA Immigration Section in February. We talked about 'crimmigration' -the intersection between criminal and immigration law. In this part, we discussed the importance of understanding that intersection and providing the client the necessary information for an informed plea. Raj Sharma: If you're going to practice in criminal law, you should understand the repercussions of Wong. So understand the concepts of Wong. You're flirting with allegations of incompetence, if you don't advise your client as to immigration consequences. If they're not a citizen and there's immigration consequences and you don't ... There's a positive duty. The Supreme Court has indicated that there's a positive duty on defense counsel. So read Wong. Act in concert with criminal defense ... Criminal defense lawyers and immigration lawyers can do magical things together. They can do magical things together, if they work together at the right time. Creative solutions are possible. So for example, now Ian and I were just discussed Jaskirat Singh Sidhu’s case. He's a permanent resident of Canada, who's been convicted of an offense. And he's gotten... Read more →

Crimmigration -a discussion with Jatin Shory and Ian McKay -Part I

My friend Jatin Shory (who also practices immigration and refugee law) had asked Ian McKay (an experienced criminal defense lawyer here in Calgary) and myself to give a presentation to the CBA Immigration Section on 'crimmigration' in February. Part I of our discussion follows... Jatin Shory: [Raj] ... is also a lecturer of the University of Calgary, and he commonly appears at all tribunal levels, and also at the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal. And a quick plug in for him, he is also the author of the newly minted Inadmissibility and Remedies. I know we're going to get into that, but if you haven't gotten your copy, go and take a look. Mine's already tabbed up. Great place to start when you're jumping into this very stressful space. With the introductions aside guys, I think I'm going to just go ahead and jump right into some of these more open-ended questions. For those who are here today, there is a Q&A button at the bottom of your screen. Feel free to drop questions wherever you like, we will get to them at the end. Jatin Shory: Today's more of a discussion, trying to get some best... Read more →

Chart -PR facing allegation of inadmissibility -simplified -excluding residency

This is a simplified chart for PRs inside Canada facing allegations of inadmissibility. This doesn't apply for PRs facing allegation that they have not complied with the residency obligation under s.28 of the IRPA. A PR may have a right of appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division. Read more →

Letters of Support in an H&C application

Letters of support are an important part of an H&C application. They can speak to a number of factors that may be at play such as the applicant's: establishment in Canada; family/family support; involvement in the community/community support; BIOC; Remorse, rehabilitation (for past instances of misrepresentation/criminality). These letters should indicate the writer's relationship with the applicant and should be specific and cogent. At times letters of support may be dismissed or given little weight by an Officer when they are cookie-cutter or generic or suffer from some other congenital defect. Other times, an Officer will deal with such letters in an unreasonable way. In Kaur v. MCI 2022 FC 220 the Officer dismissed letters of support because they were "advocative" in nature. Of course they were. That's the whole point. That analysis was given short shrift by Justice Ahmed: Read more →