REFUSAL OF PERMANENT RESIDENCE

How to address a refusal of permanent residence to Canada.

There are many reasons why permanent residence applications can get refused such as criminality, health, misrepresentation, not meeting eligibility requirements, not providing with right documents or having incomplete or inconsistent forms, losing documents, missing deadlines, or confronting a mistake committed by IRCC or Visa officers. In order to understand why your permanent residence application was refused, you can start by reviewing your refusal letter even though the given reasons can be standardized and vague. If this is the case, it is important to get a hand detailed case-specific reasons of your refusal. In order to do that, you can submit online an Access to Information Request for your file either through Access to Information Act or Privacy Act.

You will receive full notes and detailed reasons for your refusal within approximately 30 days, as IRCC is legally bound to provide this information. This will help you decide if it is worth re-applying – if there have been mistakes which can be easily corrected or any new information that needs to be added to your file. However, you need to remember that if you apply again with exactly the same set of documents and information, your new application can be refused again.

You can also consider appealing the refusal at the Federal Court of Canada through the judicial review process if the immigration officer has made an error of law or fact while processing your application. In order to do this, you need to file a Notice to the Federal Court strictly within 15 days after your refusal (for an in Canada decision) or 60 days following the decision (for an outside Canada decision). The role of the Federal Court is to determine if the immigration officer violated procedures or was reasonable or unreasonable. The judge will thus not grant or issue you a Permanent Resident Visa, but either allow or dismiss the judicial review. If the judicial review is allowed, IRCC will continue to process your file.

If your family sponsorship application has been refused, the sponsor can appeal the decision to the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) if there was an error of law or fact, or if a principle of natural justice was not observed, or if there are sufficient humanitarian and compassionate grounds to justify granting an exemption or a permanent resident status. However, the sponsor cannot file an appeal to IAD if the applicant has been found inadmissible on the grounds of serious criminality. Like the Federal Court, IAD does not grant or issue you a Permanent Resident Visa, but either allow or dismiss your appeal, and if allowed, IRCC will continue to process your file. If an Appeal at the IAD is not dismissed, a judicial review can be filed at the Federal Court of Canada within 15 days of the dismissal.

Please consult our immigration lawyers in order to review your case and to find the best solution for you.