HELP - PR refusal & open work permit status after refusal

[smudger]

Very quickly;
1. Been in Canada since March 2005 on tied work permits (a work permit that requires a positive LMO).
2. Met Canadian Fiance 2006 & applied for PR under spousal sponsorship in 2008 - after 1st stage approval I traded my tied work permit for an open work permit.
3. Have a child in the UK (who will never want to come & live in Canada) - childs mother would not take for medical & would not sign forms to show she has sole custody - this has now driven a wedge between my child & myself unfortunately due to CIC's insistence on this topic.
4. Used a lawyer to try & give CIC what they needed - what a complete waste of $3000, lawyer took the money & ran after refusal came through.
5. Received PR refusal letter due to child not undergoing medical/not having proof of sole custody.
6. What is the status of my open work permit after PR refusal?

I travel to the US on business & this work permit status is worrying me - I urgently need to know if its still valid - without a work permit I cant work & then we will lose our house we bought etc etc.
My fiance is distraught & we are actually considering just packing up & going to the UK but my fiance has a great, large family & doesnt want to leave them.............& neither do I.
This is getting ridiculous - someone please help me......................I am afraid to alert CIC to this & ask for info from them in case they just take my work permit off me.

 

[iarblue]

Reapply,send in another work permit app with it,this time you must show that your wife has sole custody of the child your court papers will prove this.Once you show she has sole custody,and write a letter stating that you are aware the child is not going for medicals,and photos,because the EX wont allow it.

 

[RobsLuv]

Very quickly;
1. Been in Canada since March 2005 on tied work permits (a work permit that requires a positive LMO).
2. Met Canadian Fiance 2006 & applied for PR under spousal sponsorship in 2008 - after 1st stage approval I traded my tied work permit for an open work permit.
3. Have a child in the UK (who will never want to come & live in Canada) - childs mother would not take for medical & would not sign forms to show she has sole custody - this has now driven a wedge between my child & myself unfortunately due to CIC's insistence on this topic.
4. Used a lawyer to try & give CIC what they needed - what a complete waste of $3000, lawyer took the money & ran after refusal came through.
5. Received PR refusal letter due to child not undergoing medical/not having proof of sole custody.
6. What is the status of my open work permit after PR refusal?

I travel to the US on business & this work permit status is worrying me - I urgently need to know if its still valid - without a work permit I cant work & then we will lose our house we bought etc etc.
My fiance is distraught & we are actually considering just packing up & going to the UK but my fiance has a great, large family & doesnt want to leave them.............& neither do I.
This is getting ridiculous - someone please help me......................I am afraid to alert CIC to this & ask for info from them in case they just take my work permit off me.

Your open work permit is valid until expiration, but due to the PR refusal you can be pretty certain it will not be extended. You'll have to leave Canada at that time. Unfortunately, because you applied inland, you have no option to appeal the refusal. Your only option is to apply again - via the outland route - and I'd strongly suggest you get the custody issue rectified before you apply.

I'm interested to know which paragraph of the IRPA they referenced as justification for refusal. I don't think they had grounds, really, just because your child's mother refused to allow examination - and you'd probably have won on appeal, although it would likely take a couple of years. Having been through it myself (refused PR because of an issue with an overaged "dependent" child not coming to Canada) it seems that CIC is misinterpreting the Act on dependent child issues quite frequently. Unfortunately, what's done is done and you and your fiance should probably look at maybe renting out/selling your house and going to the UK (at least for awhile) to get this situation with the mother resolved so that you can apply again via the outland route. I'm sorry the Canadian immigration lawyer led you to believe s/he had any control over this issue - the only ones who can really help you are the courts at home. You need to file to compel your ex to allow the child to be examined because it is in your child's best interest to be able to come to Canada to be with you if something should happen to the mother. I really hate when parents use their access to the kids to punish each other - it's unforgiveable to put the children in the middle and, frankly, you can't blame CIC that a wedge has been driven between you and your child. The fault lies with the mother - although a lot of exs freak when a former partner immigrates to Canada and starts talking about the child being added to the application and being examined. They do not understand that it's impossible for a PR applicant to bring a child to Canada who is in the custody of the foreign national parent at home - that's the "sole custody" component. The processing guides clearly state that a child will not be issued a permanent resident visa if they are in the custody of the applicant's former spouse - and you couldn't get a child across the border into Canada, even with a PR visa, without the other parent's travel authorization. That said, if the child isn't examined, s/he's excluded from ever being eligible to be sponsored at a later date - and that means if something happens to the custodial parent, the child is orphaned at home and you have no option to bring him/her to live with you.

I will give CIC this - the "rule" is there for a reason: to protect the interest of the child. Where they get off base is that they try to deal with the custodial parent and they can get a bit "high-handed" - especially when the custodial parent doesn't understand the requirements and really has no interest in knowing anything about it. CIC should leave it to the parents to discuss and not get involved. Either way, it's my personal opinion that it's never in the child's best interest to be excluded from future sponsorship to Canada just because a custodial parent either doesn't understand the process, or uses the child to interfere in the former partner's plans.

 

[smudger]

iarblue & Robsluv - your answers are much appreciated.
Robsluv - you've hit the nail on the head with your answer & seem to have read our situation perfectly.
My child is coming to Canada in August for their usual 2 summmer weeks with us & so we have decided to re-apply & both myself & my child will go for the immigration medicals during that vacation stay - thus negating the sole custody agreement requirement.
As soon as these medicals have happened we will submit a new PR application as we have then overcome the refusal obstacle & hopefully that will be that.
Do you see any roadblocks to acheiving what I've described above?

 

[iarblue]

I dont see a problem other than that you will need to sign the medicals for them and you will likely have to submit a court order for custody concerns,and im not sure how they look at it but if the EX has sole custody and care and it may have to be her signature on the medicals.
Im not sure how close they look at the signatures on the medicals or if will even be an issue.
But to get an answer for that you may want to call CIC and ask them.
And anytime you call cic for a question you do not have to tell them who is calling your just asking a question.

 

[RobsLuv]

I dont see a problem other than that you will need to sign the medicals for them and you will likely have to submit a court order for custody concerns,and im not sure how they look at it but if the EX has sole custody and care and it may have to be her signature on the medicals.
Im not sure how close they look at the signatures on the medicals or if will even be an issue.
But to get an answer for that you may want to call CIC and ask them.
And anytime you call cic for a question you do not have to tell them who is calling your just asking a question.

You can't depend on the Call Centre to give you a straight answer on this - they won't know. Your child will be in Canada visiting you - a Canadian DMP is not going to ask you for proof of custody before they will allow you to get your child medically examined for immigration. I know this because I have a dependent child of my own and we underwent two medicals for immigration and neither time did anyone even ask me to prove she was my child (we don't have the same surname anymore because of my remarriage) - let alone that I had sole custody. I also don't remember having to sign anything - much less to give permission for my child to be examined.

smudger - I don't think you'll have any issues and, the good news is that with an outland PR application in process before your OWP expires, you will actually probably be able to get it extended after all. I've been thinking for the past couple of days about my answer to you, and I think you've found the solution to the whole sordid situation. I'm still really interested, if you don't mind, in knowing which paragraph of the IRPA they referenced for grounds for your refusal. I really don't think it's in the Act that you're not eligible to immigrate because your ex-spouse/partner will not sign a paper declaring sole custody or allow your child to be examined. If you don't want to put the info out here - then please PM me.

 

[smudger]

Thx Robsluv,
I'll either post it here or PM you later today as I'm at work till lunchtime.