Apply with Humanitarian and Compassionate Considerations

[fatiger3]

Hello,

My daughter (Canadian) is severely disabled with high medical needs, my husband and I are thinking to apply PR for my in-laws to help out our family.
I read the guide on CIC site, and it seems we may have a good chance based on best interest of a child and also hardship/lack of relative and family support my-laws will face if they return to home country.

Both my husband and I are Canadian but we don't have three years of income record to sponsor them.

I have some questions here, please help

Can anyone give us some advice on our chances? will my in-laws stand a good chance to be granted?

They currently have 10 year multiple visa, not super visa, can they return to home country during the application or they can't leave until a decision is made?
If they can't leave the country, I suppose we will have to keep applying for extension on their stay to make their status legit, what happen if the request to extend is rejected, but the decision hasn't come through yet?

If H and C is refused, can we still apply for family sponsorship later that is when we have enough income for three years in a row?

Is it better to retain a lawyer to prepare the application? Any general idea about the legal fees? $5000?
With special needs daughter and high medical expenses, money isn't at our disposal, but we don't qualify for legal aid either, any suggestions?

We really appreciate if anyone can help answer some of the questions above. Please

 

[scylla]

I'll be honest - best interest of a child is an extremely weak argument since they are her grandparents rather than her parents. If this is your only argument under H&C, I don't think they stand any chance of approval. Is that your only argument?

H&C is best pursued with an immigration lawyer who specializes in H&C (my guess is $5,000 to $7,000) - although there's certainly nothing stopping you from doing it on your own.

They should remain in Canada while the H&C application is in progress. If the H&C application is refused, they may find it difficult to secure future visa approvals and it's possible they could run into greater difficulties entering Canada for visits in the future. So that's something to consider before you go down this path.

Yes - you can apply to sponsor them later via family sponsorship if the H&C application is refused.

 

[fatiger3]

Best interest of a child will be my primary argument, also, me and my husband are the old child for each family so lack for family support for my in-laws at their home country will be another argument. My husband and I both work full time and we really need some home support, even for matters as simple as cooking dinner, or look after my son (five only) while we take our daughter to the hospital, also my daughter needs almost 24 hour supervision due to medical reasons (respiratory distress, possible seizure, multiple surgeries) , she is medically fragile and technology dependent with legit disability certificate, with these details do you think it's appealing enough?

I don't mean to challenge your comment, in fact, really appreciate your reply, just thought to provide more details and see if you can give me more insights or your thoughts?

Also you mentioned " they could run into greater difficulties entering Canada for visits in the future" will the difficulties occur even with their 10 year visa still valid?

 

[scylla]

Best interests of a child is generally related to the primary care-giver (i.e. you and your husband) and the child's ability to remain in Canada. It typically does not facilitate bringing other family to help you - that's beyond the scope of what H&C is meant to do. For example, let's say your daughter was a Canadian citizen but you and your husband were not (and not PRs) and were therefore not allowed to remain in Canada. Let's say you were also from a country with substandard medical care and your daughter would be best cared for in Canada. You could then make the argument that the two of you qualify for PR through H&C because otherwise you would have to remove your daughter from Canada (since you as the parents are not allowed to stay here and your daughter is too young to remain in Canada on her own) and this means she would receive substandard care once she returns to your home country. That's how a "best interest of a child" argument works. Before you go the H&C route, it would be wise to look through canlii for H&C appeals at the Federal Court level to see what criteria has been accepted and refused - and to reassess which bucket you may fall into.

As for the multiple entry visa, holding a valid visa doesn't give you the right to enter Canada. Whether you are allowed into Canada or not is up to the immigration officer your parents encounter at the border. Extensions are also not guarantee. When coming to Canada as a visitor, one of the things CBSA looks for is ties to your home country to ensure you are a genuine visitor. A failed H&C application will demonstrate the opposite (i.e. that your parents want to remain in Canada long term). Ultimately impossible to say what may or may not happen at the border (or if you file for an extension) since it's a dice roll. However a failed H&C could certainly have an impact on both of these.

 

[jomz]

I'll be honest - best interest of a child is an extremely weak argument since they are her grandparents rather than her parents. If this is your only argument under H&C, I don't think they stand any chance of approval. Is that your only argument?

H&C is best pursued with an immigration lawyer who specializes in H&C (my guess is $5,000 to $7,000) - although there's certainly nothing stopping you from doing it on your own.

They should remain in Canada while the H&C application is in progress. If the H&C application is refused, they may find it difficult to secure future visa approvals and it's possible they could run into greater difficulties entering Canada for visits in the future. So that's something to consider before you go down this path.

Yes - you can apply to sponsor them later via family sponsorship if the H&C application is refused.

I've given this some thought too, and my concern would be that the family has not applied for the Regular parent sponsorship and this h&c application may be just viewed as trying to skip the regular processing timelines.