Hey guys, residents in Pakistan have to sign the IMM 5536E form allowing Canadian government to reveal information to foreign governments about the applicant.
I'm Pakistani and living in Pakistan and had an interfaith marriage in a third country with my Canadian husband. The marriage certificate states our religions.
Will Canadian government reveal my interfaith marriage to Pakistan under this form? If they do that, my life will be in danger. What should I do?
Does anyone have any experience with this IMM5536e form and what all it can lead me into. I don't want to die.
This seems to be a Pakistan-specific form so you may be best advised to inquire where possible of others what is done in these cases and what this form is used for. And note my comments below are rather general (from a bit of related experience with forms
like this), but with no specific knowledge of Pakistan.
But:
-the form appears to be about Canada
getting and verifying information from Pakistani organisations.
-This may or may not be obvious but: in most cases Canada cannot
get information from a counterparty without also
providing information about the person whom the inquiry regards - even if the information is limited to name and passport information. Obviusly may also need to disclose specific information they wish to confirm with Pakistani organisations such as "this person has claimed to be a student" (or reside at, or have worked at, or done military service at) between such dates, could you please confirm?
-hence even though the form is entitled "authorisation to disclose information", I believe it is really about Canada
acquiring information. (It's possible/likely that having such a permission from you is required under Pakistani law to obtain that information - and that this particular form of permission is needed because the other permissions you sign in the standard immigration application are not sufficient)
I don't
believe that Canada would disclose any information that is not specifically relevant to the information they are attempting to confirm. In addition, for your foreign marriage, there would/should be nothing to confirm with Pakistani authorities. (And I believe/hope that Canadian authorities also understand that sharing information about applicants with home country governments may be risky for the applicant - notably for example for refugee applications - and only do so when necessary and not sharing information that is particularly sensitive - this is actually an area where Canadian law is rather strict
and there is a lot of sensitivity within government - for example for same-sex relationships for individuals from countries where it is illegal)
It probably will not surprise you to learn that although Canada may routinely share information with close allies (US, Aus, NZ, UK, some NATO, etc). The same level of information sharing does not exist with the Pakistani government. (Note for immigration applicants, the info shared with close allies is mostly just passport info to facilitate police database checks)
However, I cannot say 100% what information is shared or that no information about applicants is shared, and there are certain areas of cooperation (eg terrorism) where there may be more information sharing with the PK government.
Unfortunately I doubt that general information contacts at IRCC would be able to tell you much detail about this or put your concerns entirely to rest. It's possible - possible only - that some immigration lawyers/specialists with experience with Pakistani applications may know more (but they also may not).
It's possible the Pakistan-specific threads/discussions here may have participants who know more. Or other internet forums, for example.
So my gut is that this is routine and unlikely to result in disclosure of sensitive information about you, but I can't say with certainty.
