Mandamus application assistance

[Decius]

I firmly now believe that the only way to deal effectively with CIC and their absolutely inappropriate handling of Citizenship cases is to deal with it legally. I also don't believe that on top of spending thousands of dollars on the initial application that we should be forced to spend another fortune on a lawyer only to have them take each application seriously, which is something they should be doing anyhow.

I have read numerous posts on here over the "YEARS" (yes, years I've been waiting for my wife's application to go through) on people who filed a mandamus only to have their application quickly dealt with as a result.

I implore anyone who has legal access to a complete mandamus to provide it to members on this forum so that we may file one ourselves, especially if we seek fair treatment and do not have the funds to hire lawyers to attain it.

I am sure I am not the only one who would greatly appreciate those of you that would share this information with us. And please, if you have any advice, share it, but do not advise us not to pursue filing one without a lawyer; if it was $500 I would look into it. But for $2000, I simply cannot afford it.

 

[Ronaldo Da Lima 89]

In your opinion, why your wife's application was delayed?

Is there any problem or anything that makes the application late ?

 

[Decius]

She has stamps in her passport that correspond to day trips to the states. That's it. We have received no notification of a RQ, nothing. I, being a citizen of Canada, born and raised there, am so utterly disgusted with the way potential citizens are being treated. My anger in lieu of the fact that they don't even have reliable phone support or even a wait line anymore is so embarrassing that I am just sick and tired of trying to wait for these people to stop operating in the laziest, most slow and inefficient method humanly possible.

I also don't want to spend more money trying to get what my wife has legally earned. So, again, can anyone in an altruistic manner, help us file a mandamus independently?

 

[lover-of-love]

I hear you man and they way CIC treats the immigrants and how helpless I feel at times is something that can not be defined in words.. Seriously, at times I have this impression that I ve made a wrong choice by choosing Canada to immigrate. Are you from Edmonton? If yes, here is a link you can get some legal help from free of cost.
h t t p :/ / www . eclc. ca /

Their other contact info is

Phone: 780-702-1725 ext 239
Fax: 780-702-1726

Also see this:

h t t p s: / / residencequestionnaire. wordpress. com /resources-for-rq-recipients/low-cost-legal-resources/

Also I will talk to a fried who is lawyer here in edmonton and will let you know...

 

[Decius]

I am now absolutely driven to accomplish this. And once I form my mandamus, I will post it here (with censored details) and explain, step by step, exactly how to file it on your own. I want every single person who is legitimately supposed to be a citizen to be able to drown the CIC in legal remedies since they don't take simple human respect and dignity serious enough.

I am, unfortunately, stuck with the Vancouver office, which, in my mind, is one of the worst centers to be dealing with. Thanks for your help man.

 

[lover-of-love]

You think Vancouver is the worst? buddy i am so happy for you that you are not from Edmonton. In Edmonton, it is normal for a routine applicant to wait for 24 months (or more) to get the invitation for citizenship test. But regardless, its not just Edmonton or vancouver.. Its CIC as a whole who thinks that immigrants don't deserve to be treated with dignity. Yes, that will be a huge help if you file for mandamus and post its details here... In the meanwhile, do check your personal messages. And do call the BC numbers that are in the link in my previous post. I stand with you my man.

lover-of-love

 

[alexdive]

Please keep us posted!
Very much like your post

Best,

 

[jhjeppe]

Unless you have expert legal knowledge, you will be unsuccessful... A writ of Mandamus is not a form or something that you can fill out... This is a lengthy document prepared by a lawyer. It contains a lot of legal jargon that not everyone will understand, you will be required to go against another lawyer in court... There is just simply no way around it... Lawyers have clever ways of excluding evidence and documentation in court... Opposing counsel will have your case thrown out in 30 seconds or less... The only way to go about this is to hire a lawyer... This can run you anywhere from $3000 - $5000 or more depending on circumstances...

Please consider the following:

In order to apply for a writ of mandamus you must check the following:

1. That you are in excess of the processing times greatly (one to six months from the maximum processing times does not seem to be excessive). The processing times should be at the time you checked and not at the time you applied.

2. You must have exhaust all administrative and procedural means towards the said end ( it means you have written CIC a couple of times after the maximum processing times and not within the processing times, you have involved your MP and the Minister's Office already and you have written the Case Officer at the Case Processing Center regarding your case)

3. You must have equipped yourself with FOSS, GCMS Notes and ATIP papers showing that your files has not been moved or any action was taken after the Bring Forward Date.

In case you have not satisfied all of the above, your filing of a Mandamus would certainly fail.

The complications is greater if CIC suspects that you are among those who raised red flags.

Mandamus is only applied to compel CIC to act on your application. It does not say CIC is required to approved it.

If you are an RQ recipient, this makes the WOM much harder.

Try to file and spend thousands of dollars for nothing.


See the link below, this is more or less the kind of document that you will need to present, as you can see, it contains a lot of law citations and legal speak that only lawyer will know... 27 pages long, it certainly is a lot of work and research... and that is the easy part... the hard part comes when you have to appear in court, you are essentially suing the government, without a lawyer? Now, if that doesn't sound insane, I don't know what does!

http://www.ilw.com/seminars/201010_citation2c.pdf

 

[Decius]

So for all those interested:

A writ of mandamus appears to be a name for the overall procedure - you are asking the court to issue a mandamus to CIC. The actual legal term for what you will be filing is:

"Notice of Application for Judicial Review"

This costs $50 to file. Much information pertaining to filing this notice is available here:

cas-ncr-nter03.cas-satj.gc.ca/portal/page/portal/fc_cf_en/ApplicationJR

At the current time, what I am going to do is familiarize myself with the process and reach out to immigration lawyers to see if they can help guide me through the process for a nominal fee. That way I can share what I learn here for others to benefit from for free.

 

[lover-of-love]

Here is some information that I found on another forum and thought that I can share here. In my opinion, it is a good idea to write to these people one by one seek their opinion first.... also do you have your email? Let me know your email and I'll email you in person some of the concerns that I have regarding writ of mandamus (woM)
......
Re: After 36 months: I go for Mandamus! Who else here has hired a lawyer?
« Reply #255 on: October 29, 2014, 08:17:54 am »

Lawyer information for WoM..Hope this helps!

Mark Rosenblatt
416-367-3176
(works with David Rosenblatt)

Costs:
$3500 Federal Court Package
$300 per hour consultation fee (will be deducted from overall cost if you go with him)


Comments:
Claims to have been a lawyer since 1989. His first Federal court case dates back to 1998, though. Out of 36 cases battled, he won 16 and lost 20. The cases mostly involve refugees (about 25 of them) and some ten permanent resident visa cases. None of them involve delayed applications, rather the outcome.

Furthermore, he claims to have some insider information (perhaps he knows that the threat of Mandamus resolves most delayed cases within a few months? which we may already know from 3 people on this forum who went for Mandamus and claim success)./b]

Lorne Waldman
Email: lorne.waldman @ gmail.com
Cost: $3500 (Case settles before hearing), $5K (if it goes to hearing)
Comments: Perhaps the most proficient and up-to-date lawyer on mandamus issue. He attempted to gather people for a collective mandamus, which was not followed through.


$5K:

Matthew Jeffery
416-944-3267
Comments: He has lots of cases on Federal Court Decision database. Haven't gone through them in detail, but check it out.

Karen Kwan Anderson (Pace Law Firm)
416-734-0410
Comments: Claims to have had cases settled with CIC before, which is her explanation for why her name does not show up on Federal court database.

Hart A. Kaminker
416-840-0525 ext 105
Comments: His name does show up on Federal Court Decision database, but he seems to be mostly dealing with refugee cases (somehow this is a trend with a lot of lawyers doing Citizenship mandamus, that on Federal Court database they mainly show up for refugee cases)/b]

 

[AK111]

Dears,

How long it takes the mandamus process in average?

Thanks

 

[jhjeppe]

So for all those interested:

A writ of mandamus appears to be a name for the overall procedure - you are asking the court to issue a mandamus to CIC. The actual legal term for what you will be filing is:

"Notice of Application for Judicial Review"

This costs $50 to file. Much information pertaining to filing this notice is available here:

cas-ncr-nter03.cas-satj.gc.ca/portal/page/portal/fc_cf_en/ApplicationJR

At the current time, what I am going to do is familiarize myself with the process and reach out to immigration lawyers to see if they can help guide me through the process for a nominal fee. That way I can share what I learn here for others to benefit from for free.

Wow, your arrogance knows no bounds, doesn't it?

Seriously, if you are going to insult the people that is trying to help you, you should probably not ask for it in the first place.

You sound like a very angry person, please don't take out your frustrations of your Citizenship applications on me or the other people that is trying to help you.

 

[lover-of-love]

jhjeppe, we should try to encourage Decius and he himself has said that he will familiarize himself with the process and reach out to immigration lawyers to see if they can help guide him through the process for a nominal fee.

I know that you responded in good faith and whatever you have said does make sense, but at the same time we should encourage people who want to stand up for what they (and myself as well) think is not fair. In my humble opinion, telling him that "You will be unsuccessful" will do no good... Instead, we should help him with providing some useful information that can increase his knowledge about the procedure. Apart from useful information, we can also provide him with some nice and encouraging words and also should feel his pain. In fact a lot of people are going through this and I know how helpless and belittled one feels after seeing the attitude of these CIC employees. I totally agree with Decius that there is no point of holding his wife's application for 3 years. Infact it is inhumane of CIC to treat people like this and if he wants to protest and make himself heard, we all should support him and stand with him in whichever way we can..... and saying words like "Wow, your arrogance knows no bounds, doesn't it?" and "you will be unsuccessful." is not the best way of doing this. Do you agree dear jhjeppe?

lover-of-love

 

[Canadiandesi2006]

Almost every citizenship applicant is victim of CIC's abject apathy that subject helpless candidates in years of torture. Yet CIC is thumping their nose by increasing their processing fees to $ 630 and keeping their torture delay in place.

Unfortunately, government, elected leaders & bureaucrats all seems to be in league to keep the agony of applicants.

Knowing, mandamus is beyond everybody's reach. Is there anything like class action against CIC for their lethargy ???

 

[jhjeppe]

jhjeppe, we should try to encourage Decius and he himself has said that he will familiarize himself with the process and reach out to immigration lawyers to see if they can help guide him through the process for a nominal fee.

I know that you responded in good faith and whatever you have said does make sense, but at the same time we should encourage people who want to stand up for what they (and myself as well) think is not fair. In my humble opinion, telling him that "You will be unsuccessful" will do no good... Instead, we should help him with providing some useful information that can increase his knowledge about the procedure. Apart from useful information, we can also provide him with some nice and encouraging words and also should feel his pain. In fact a lot of people are going through this and I know how helpless and belittled one feels after seeing the attitude of these CIC employees. I totally agree with Decius that there is no point of holding his wife's application for 3 years. Infact it is inhumane of CIC to treat people like this and if he wants to protest and make himself heard, we all should support him and stand with him in whichever way we can..... and saying words like "Wow, your arrogance knows no bounds, doesn't it?" and "you will be unsuccessful." is not the best way of doing this. Do you agree dear jhjeppe?

lover-of-love

Is it fair? no, but one has to remain circumspect when dealing with things like these

I offered my opinion... and then got called a troll for doing so... and then it got deleted...
I spoke to my sister before I posted this (she is a corporate lawyer), she also has experience with civil cases like this and she said that without legal knowledge the chances of failing is exceptionally high because of the certain tactics that lawyers have, when a lawyer starts using big words in court, this individual will be stuck... I prefer not to sugar coat it, if you want to pat him on the back and tell him he will do fine, that is your choice, I on the other hand prefer to tell the truth, using facts and statistics... I am not on here to encourage anyone, I am here to share ideas, network and research... I do believe that some people are here for that but that is simply not me, I have my family and friends for that, this is a immigration forum to exchange information, it is simply that, a Forum!

enough said...