Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

Punjabi language interview on RedFM discussing the suspension of visa services to Canadians

I was asked to discuss the unprecedent suspension of visa services to Canadians on RedFM on September 22, 2023. Note: the suspension of visa services only applies to new or pending applications; it does not impact the rights of anyone that holds an OCI or valid visa to India. Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Lawyers · September 2023 RedFM Interview on suspension of visas for Canadians 2023 09 22 RedFM interview on visa suspension Read more →

Raj Sharma Interview on CBC BC Today with Michelle Elliot -September 21, 2023

The following is a transcript of an interview on September 21, 2023. Michelle Elliot: [inaudible 00:00:00] visa services in Canada, is Raj Sharma. He's an immigration lawyer and former immigration officer, and Raj joins me now from Calgary. Hello, good afternoon. Raj Sharma: Good afternoon. Michelle Elliot: Thank you very much for joining us this afternoon. What do you make of this latest move from India? Raj Sharma: Well, whenever we deal with international disputes it's the ordinary people that find themselves caught in the crossfire. My thoughts right now are for my clients. My thoughts right now are for individuals like my parents that immigrated to Canada from India many, many years ago so that diaspora is stranded in Canada without that overseas citizenship of India. There is no more E visa, there is no more visa consular services for Canadians, ostensibly because of security concerns but they won't even issue a visa to a Canadian even if that application's made outside of Canada to a different consulate. So we've got people stranded in Canada, they can't rush back if there's any sort of family emergency. We've got a massive disruption that's going to happen In terms of tourism... Read more →

Raj Sharma Interview on CBC News Network on the Suspension of Visa Services for Canadians

Transcript of an interview on September 24, 2023: Deanna Sumanac-Johnson: As we mentioned, India announced it was stopping all visa services for Canadians. The move has led to concern and frustration among many Indians in Canada. For more on this angle, we're joined by immigration lawyer Raj Sharma. Thank you so much for making the time for us, Raj. Tell me, first of all, what do you make of India's decision to suspend visa services for Canadians? Raj Sharma: First of all, the announcement was out of the blue. No one expected it. Obviously, the Indians didn't telegraph this. They sort of ratcheted it up fairly quickly. So, firstly, they responded very strongly to the allegations of a potential link for the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar to Indian agents or Indian diplomats. This [announcement] came out of the blue, and so as you can imagine, it's resulted in a great deal of unease and uncertainty for Indo-Canadians. Now we have hundreds of thousands of Indo-Canadians. Of course, we have the 700,000 plus Sikhs from the Punjab, mainly from Punjab. We also have Indians from all over India. Indo-Canadians have maintained massive ties to [India], and [as one example] this... Read more →

Discussing the Bhaona Mohamed case, the IAD flouting Justice Ahmed's Decision, and the Role of the Federal Court, on the Borderlines Podcast

I went on Borderlines, the excellent immigration law podcast, to discuss the recent decision of Justice O'Reilly that will result in a third IAD hearing for Bhaona Mohamed, a frontline LTC healthcare worker that sought humanitarian relief to overcome a breach of the residency obligation. The transcript is below. Borderlines · #87 - Visa Officers and the IAD Ignoring or Disagreeing with Federal Court, with Raj Sharma Borderlines number 87 discussing Bhaona Mohamed Steven Meurrens: Hello and welcome to Borderlines. A podcast for the discussion of Canadian immigration law. I'm Steven Meurrens. In Episode 69 of this podcast, recorded about a year ago, Raj Sharma was our guest to discuss his case, Mohammed v. Canada Citizenship and Immigration 2022 FC1. There in setting aside the refusal of an immigration appeal division decision Justice Ahmed stated, "As a healthcare aide, the applicant risked her own health and safety to support health comprised and aging individuals. She is applying the very skills she acquired in Canada over a decade ago at a time when they're desperately needed while not knowing if she herself will be able to stay in Canada. To frame this commitment and these contributions as only a "moderately positive"... Read more →