Spousal Sponsorship Court Hearing

[turquoise]

Hello,

I would like to know exactly how long would it take for the hearing to be finished. We were scheduled for a short court hearing this month  @  2PM. RE: Criminal inadmissiblity of sponsored spouse. Police clearance already cleared even with a letter from my spouse Consulate atesting that it'b been discarded.

Thanks in advance.

[RobsLuv]

Not sure what the "police clearance already cleared even with a letter from my spouse Consulate attesting that it'b been discarded" means . . . so don't have a good feel for your situation - which makes it really difficult to say with any certainty what you might expect.  Other than that criminal inadmissibility is a serious issue to overcome - if in fact your spouse is actually inadmissible.  

Is this a full hearing - or an Alternative Dispute Resolution hearing?  Typically appeal hearings can take anywhere from 45 minutes to a hour or two, to maybe most of the day.  It depends on the issues and how quickly they can come to a decision.  It also depends on what type of hearing it is.  

For example, if your spouse is criminally inadmissible, they have to base the merit of the appeal on humanitarian and compassionate consideration - and it can take a long time to go over all those evidences.  If it's an ADR hearing, the counsel for the Minister of CIC is there to uphold the refusal and it can be difficult to convince him/her in a criminal inadmissibility case to consent.  That could go really fast - and result in a refusal to consent, which puts you in the position of having to decide whether to abandon the appeal or wait to be scheduled for a full hearing.  ADR hearings do not usually work in inadmissibility cases.  If it's a full hearing, then the decision is made by a panel member (judge), and the Minister's counsel is only really there to try to defend the refusal decision.  They will interview you, probably for quite some time, about the "genuine nature" of the relationship and about your family/children/etc., to determine whether there are compelling grounds for H&C discretion.  

If your spouse actually isn't inadmissible, it could take a long time to prove that.  I hope you have a lawyer because this is a tough refusal to overcome, even in cases where it's not justified.  

[turquoise]

I hired another lawyer specializes in immigration, H&C & Refugee cases, a very good one, before I came to him, I asked that he will be the one who will represent me not his associates. he asked me for tons of money, I took the risk said I cannot afford it & asked him if he could lower it down, I cannot believe he did.  The same fee as my first lawyer( no offense to my first lawyer, she was very organized & good too) but this second one is really really good. We submitted the cleared current police clearance & letter from Consulate confirming the exemption of the criminal record, Statement of legal opinion from a hungarian lawyer too.On the day of the hearing, both parties (lawyers) agreed it was under H&C grounds. It took only 15-25 minutes. My lawyer had his say & the other had her say. Afterwards, the judge decided yes. Thank God, I had a considerate judge too. I was confused but my lawyer said he will tell me about the decision when we stepped out. 
He told me it's over & we won! I cannot believe it. He told me to go to his office to fill up an ARC form. When they received the written decision (it was only verbal at the hearing) they will send all the updated files to Vienna Austria.

Oh my God, My husband was even panicking at that time, he said his bed was full of documents & waiting for the judge to call him but instead I called & told him the good news.