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| Karen Kwan Anderson |
Karen Kwan Anderson – Pace Law Firm: One of my clients – let’s call him Joe – was in a tight spot a while ago.
Joe’s family landed in Canada around 2006, and Joe was a dependent on his father’s application under the Entrepreneur category. Unfortunately, soon after arriving in Canada, Joe’s mother developed an illness which required transplant surgery. Since the surgery was available in their home country, his mother and father left Canada, and Joe stayed behind.
The mother passed away post-surgery and the father became very depressed. He did not return to Canada. Joe remained in Canada as a student. He graduated, and began working. He traveled in and out of Canada many times, on business and to visit his father, but he always had a valid Permanent Resident (PR) card.
He would have had to wait 18 months for an appeal hearing, and had he lost that, he would have been kicked out of the country.
Everything was fine until Joe received a letter from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). They warned him that enforcement action would be taken against him; Joe’s father had not complied with the terms and conditions of the Entrepreneur category, which meant that Joe was in danger of losing his PR status.
Joe retained me to do a file investigation. After reviewing a very thick file (about 8 years of material since my client was a student in Canada since 2002), I provided an opinion report to him. I contacted the CIC business immigration officer to discuss Joe’s strong Humanitarian & Compassionate grounds for remaining in Canada. I followed up with a lengthy and detailed submission which described the facts, evidence and case law in support of strong H&C factors.
Eventually, Joe was called in for an interview. I went with him. I took notes throughout the interview and reminded the officer where the evidence was in the Document Brief we submitted. At the end of the interview, the officer found that there were sufficient H&C factors, and concluded that no action would be taken against my client. Therefore, Joe did not become the subject of an investigation.
We were well-prepared and well-documented to deal with the issues.
If the decision had been the opposite, a report would have been written against my client and he would have had to attend an admissibility hearing. He would have received a deportation order. He would have had to wait 18 months for an appeal hearing, and had he lost that, he would have been kicked out of the country.
Fortunately this did not happen, and by December 2010, my client became a Canadian citizen. He was later successful in sponsoring his wife to Canada. I am also happy to report that they are now expecting their first child, who will be the first member of their family born in Canada.
Always remember: the most important thing a person can do to help ensure a successful outcome to any immigration matter is to have plenty of documentation on hand. If you’re not sure what you need, or how to use it, feel free to contact me.