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Buyer Beware

June 27, 2007

Buyer Beware

A series of articles in the Toronto Star recently shone a powerful spotlight on the immigration consulting industry. What they found does not speak well for the industry.

First a bit of background on the subject. For many years only lawyers in good standing with their provincial bar association were allowed to represent clients before immigration tribunals. In reality however, individuals seeking to immigrate to Canada were receiving advice from a variety of sources, including consultants from a wide range of backgrounds. With no regulation however, reputable consultants practiced alongside individuals with little in the way of credentials and credibility.

The Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC) was created in 2004 as a way to monitor immigration consultants who are not lawyers. CSIC is a self-regulating body meant to ensure that CSIC standards of service quality are met by its members. The incentive to join CSIC is that its members are allowed to represent clients before the Canadian government for immigration matters. This opportunity to be recognized as a visa applicant's agent by the Government of Canada was intended to draw consultants into the fold as a means to standardize the industry.

The investigation by the Toronto Star however unearthed a series of behaviours that show that many clients are still being exploited, and the system is being defrauded. Why hasn't CSIC cleaned up the industry? What it comes down to is that the organization is not enforcing its mission.

The idea was that by creating a standard for professionalism, clients of immigration consultants could be more confident in their services and any unethical and illegal behaviours would be weeded out. Building a standard however takes more than words on a mission statement, it takes active enforcement. Since its founding, the CSIC has not established a pattern of disciplinary proceedings to punish unethical behaviour. Memberships have been revoked for failure to pay dues or to meet language requirements, but very seldom for improper practice.

Unscrupulous behaviour is by no means limited to immigration consultants. The difference however is that if a client is defrauded by a lawyer, his or her law society will use its power to disbar the lawyer. In addition, bar associations can also provide a kind of insurance policy for consumers, by ensuring that defrauded clients are compensated. Potential immigrants, often unfamiliar with the details of Canadian laws and concerned about jeopardizing their applications, are a group whose interests require protecting. The problems highlighted by the Toronto Star investigation show that CSIC is not doing its job.

Even as an organization with voluntary membership, CSIC has within its authority a wide range of options to discipline its members. These tools have not been put to use, and the result is that the industry remains fraught with individuals willing to mislead their consumers and the government, and these individuals are tarnishing the work of others in the field. A concerted effort by CSIC to enforce their mandate will recapture the confidence of honest professionals and of consumers. Until then for those in the process of immigrating to Canada, it remains caveat emptor, or buyer beware, when seeking immigration advice under the CSIC banner.

 

 

The Right to Sponsor

June 19, 2007

Equality is a fundamental Canadian value. Whether you are a fifth-generation Canadian or you have just received your Canadian citizenship this morning, you are entitled to exactly the same set of rights and responsibilities. Or at least that's the way it's meant to be.

Family reunification is a stated goal of Canadian immigration policy. Canadian citizens and Permanent Residents may sponsor their parents, grandparents, spouses or children to come to Canada as Canadian Permanent Residents. According to Canadian law this right to bring your family to Canada cannot be denied to any Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident as long as they are residing in Canada and meet sponsorship requirements.

In practice however we can see that this right is not being provided equally to all Canadians. Once an application to sponsor parents or grandparents is approved by the central processing office in Mississauga, Ontario, there is a reasonable expectation that the process will be finalized within a similar time frame no matter where the family member is coming from. A quick look at processing times for parent/grandparent sponsorship applications shows that this expectation is not being satisfied. For the more fortunate applicants, the average application processing time through the Canadian immigration visa office in London is about 7 months; through Cairo it would be 11 months; through the Ankara office in 12 months. At the other end of this spectrum it takes 31 months, on average, to process cases through the Paris or Manila visa offices, 34 months through the New Delhi or Singapore visa offices.

There are a number of reasons why certain Canadian visa offices take longer than others to process applications. Higher volume of applications, not enough staff available, other administrative challenges all can contribute to slowing down processing times. The fact of the matter is, however, that no matter what the explanation is, these drastic differences are unacceptable. For other categories of immigration, Canada's government may place its resources where it deems appropriate; since the applicants are not yet Canadians, they do not have a right to immigrate. For sponsorship of family members however, it is existing Canadians and Permanent Residents whose equality rights are being violated.

When you have differences of two full years in processing times between different visa offices, what it amounts to is discrimination based on the location of a Canadian's parents. Even worse, when parents or grandparents are elderly, long delays can mean that they will no longer pass required medical exams, meaning that in such cases, the right to sponsor is being denied altogether.

One reason that immigrants choose to come to Canada is because they can count on having their rights respected and being treated equally no matter who they are or where they come from. In many ways Canada leads the world in this regard. The Canadian government needs to allocate the necessary resources to make sure that the right to sponsor is respected equally for all Canadians, no matter where their family is.