Hi good morning to all! we are a family of 3 who came here on a visitor's visa. We came here because of difficulties in our country which work is very hard to find. we are living without any status here now for almost 2 years. We are on our own without no family support. We have been trying our best to get help and got ripped off lots of time from immigration fraud companies and i have tried to find a company which supports lmia but seems almost impossible to find. so we are now scared of whom to trust. our daughter is being home school because we are scared to go public. I am working for a company that is paying me cash and that is how i afford rent and food. my wife stays home with our daughter to teach her. We don't know where to go for help, we need someone who can lead us in the right direction. Please any advise will be accepted. thank you.
Hello, you should look for a community law group or centre, assuming that you are in a reasonably large city in Canada. Immigration issues consume a great deal of resources for these people and they are generally familiar with the issues that you are facing and worrying yourself sick about. Who cannot sympathize with a man looking after the interests of his family - plenty of people, it is sad to say.
Do you have a valid claim to Convention refugee status, is work difficult to find in your homeland because of your ethnicity, religion, membership in a social group? I don't know and neither does anyone else at this point. Your family's lack of status and need for some sort of resolution is the predominant issue - your child's health and education needs demand it.
When IRPA was introduced to replace the old immigration act it recognized new considerations and priorities and the Best Interests of the Child (BIOC) was a premier feature with lots of fanfare. It shows up most significantly within humanitarian and compassionate grounds applications - H&Cs can be very complex applications to put together for them to be compelling but statistically the odds look to be over 40 percent approvals.
This is no reason for blind or even a measured optimism because a significant number of the approvals will "likely" be from applicants with lengthy histories in Canada (failed refugee claims, children at risk, and the laying down of roots within your community, letters of support from people like teachers, religious workers, others). This decision-making is guided by policy but there is a very broad level of discretion exercised by these officers.
Generally speaking, "Canada" doesn't want people living underground because the system doesn't know that someone is here, and it leads to children not going to school, wives hiding in their homes or a working parent being ripped off by someone employing people without concern for taxes, workman's compensation and all that.
So, what are your choices here? You can go to the CBSA and resign yourself to returning to your home country or you can make a refugee claim since that's just about the only thing that would Stay, or prevent, a near immediate removal. In practical terms, the options boil down to these stark choices.
Please, get to a walk-in law clinic so that you can share your entire story with someone familiar with the differing immigration processes and offer their advice so that you may then make an informed decision about which way to go.
A failed refugee claim followed by a removal from Canada will just about obliterate international travel for you in the developed world for the rest of your life and that is also a lot to lose. I wonder if life here is really any better for you and yours, but then again - like everyone else here - I don't know beans about you. I do however, hope that you can find some considerate and competent legal advisor from a well established law centre that serves low income families.
That's in your best interest, sir.