Refugee status cessation and PRs applying for citizenship
- Thread starter dpenabill
- Start date
Hi,
I am a silent follower of this thread. I sought asylum a few years earlier. I was worried after my many trips using my home country passport and a trip to my country. However, I became Canadian today.
I am not sure if it makes any difference but all my travels occurred after I became
I am a silent follower of this thread. I sought asylum a few years earlier. I was worried after my many trips using my home country passport and a trip to my country. However, I became Canadian today.
I am not sure if it makes any difference but all my travels occurred after I became
Congratulations Dreamer
, seems at least one of your dreams have come true.Did any question about your travel history come up during the interview?
I thank you all , for the information probided through this channel. I belive that it helps to alot of us to understand the risks.
Question, does anyone knows of a good lawyer in Toronto or Mississauga that one can talk to about applying for citizenship when home country passport was obtained and had travelled to home country twice being a PR refugge?
Thank you in advance for the response
Question, does anyone knows of a good lawyer in Toronto or Mississauga that one can talk to about applying for citizenship when home country passport was obtained and had travelled to home country twice being a PR refugge?
Thank you in advance for the response
See this new decision from federal court:
https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/311841/index.do?r=AAAAAQAWY2Vzc2F0aW9uIHJlZnVnZWUgMjAxOAE
@dpenabill what you think?
https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/311841/index.do?r=AAAAAQAWY2Vzc2F0aW9uIHJlZnVnZWUgMjAxOAE
@dpenabill what you think?
I have been sitting on a draft of observations about this case (see http://canlii.ca/t/hsp1r or https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/fr/item/311841/index.do ) for a few days. In itself, the case is fairly simple, fairly straightforward. PR-refugee applicant for citizenship is flagged at a PoE upon return from home country, citizenship application then in process is thus suspended pending investigation for potential cessation, Court ruled that suspending the citizenship application process was lawful, therefore the application for mandamus seeking an order for IRCC to grant citizenship or otherwise proceed with the application was denied.
How the cessation process will turn out I cannot guess. Why the respective agencies, including Minister of Public Safety, just sat on this for so long, for YEARS, I cannot guess.
Otherwise, as I am guessing you apprehend, there is nonetheless a lot which can be read between the lines or extrapolated from this case. BUT that gets complicated. And, a big dose of CAUTION should be taken with any effort to digest what this case suggests.
Without getting into all the aspects of what I have been analyzing so far (will try to get to more extensive observations sooner rather than later), one aspect of this case which looms most large is that once again this is another case in which the TRIGGERING event appears to have been a PoE examination by CBSA upon arrival. In a previous post I referenced and linked a number of other cases tending to indicate that the most common triggering event appears to be a PoE examination EVEN FOR those applying for citizenship.
But even this is complicated. The PoE event here was many years ago and in the Harper-era (that is, the crackdown era). So how relevant is this to how CBSA, IRCC, and the respective Ministers (actually their agencies of course) are approaching this NOW? Big open question.
Other relevant questions:
Would IRCC have initiated a referral itself, on its own, if CBSA did not?
Was there, perhaps, already a flag in the PR's GCMS specifically alerting CBSA to examine the PR upon arrival in Canada?
If there was a flag, then what sort of flag? An internal CBSA flag derived from electronic screening? A previous PoE examination not resulting in any action but flagging the PR for future examination about this? An IRCC flag to screen this particular citizenship applicant? OR perhaps a general flag to screen any returning citizenship applicant?
I have long, long suspected that CBSA officers at the PoE see something in their monitor alerting them that the traveler-PR is an applicant for citizenship. Whether this is for all applicants, some applicants, some particular applicants based on this or that criteria, or what, I can only guess, particularly since, again, this has only been a hunch of mine. If there is any such flagging, it falls deeply behind the curtain of secrecy about investigatory methods.
I am very confident there are at least SOME occasions in which particular citizenship applicants are in fact flagged in GCMS/FOSS. There are, for example, cases in which an applicant was returning to Canada to attend the oath ceremony but upon arrival at the oath ceremony was not allowed to take the oath and then subjected to further processing, and it appears quite obvious that the PoE event resulted in a communication/referral to IRCC, which in turn resulted in the person's oath being cancelled . . . in circumstances strongly suggesting CBSA had an alert to screen this particular applicant for this or that particular thing, that is that CBSA's attention during the PoE event was not merely circumstantial, but appears to have been following up on an alert which was most likely initiated by IRCC, arising from the citizenship application.
My suspicion, not at all well documented but still my sense, is that there is at least some code which pops up on the CBSA monitor indicating a PR has a citizenship application in process, and that there are probably internal guidelines for additional questions to ask these individuals. The PR applicant for citizenship who is returning from the U.S. after a short time in the U.S., SHRUG, waive through. The PR who is returning after a particularly lengthy absence, not so fast, perhaps some additional questions. The PR-refugee returning from his or her home country, or using a home country passport, NOT so fast. And so on.
You should be able to discern from the above how complicated even this single tangent can be. And there are additional aspects and tangents worth addressing in this recent case.
I am hoping to have time to delve into this further. Lots of weeds, though, tangled weeds no less.
EDIT to ADD: This case invites numerous tangential questions. I address one above: what does it suggest TRIGGERED the referral and suspension? And even as to this, I only address it in part.
I can readily see too many questions for me to analyze in detail (am in an especially busy season at the moment). If anyone has a particular question, has a particular idea about some aspect of this, I could focus on addressing that sooner rather later . . . recognizing I am NO expert.
One such question, for one example, might be about whether this case means someone here has had their application suspended with no notice to them it has been suspended. And if so, what should they do? Obviously the case illustrates that this is indeed a possibility. What is the likelihood of it? What to do about it? Those questions get a lot more complicated.
And I would be interested to see anyone else's observations or analysis, in addition to particular questions.
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Hello, I have a couple of questions. I believe that the purpose for immigration to ask for travel documents js to validate that you have not being out of Canada for long periods of times and that they will only look for the las five years.
Questions. If the las time you travelled using your country's passport to go back home is over five years, will that be an issue? And if You are not able find your passport, what other document can be presented? Will citizenship still reach out to CBSA for travel information for only the las five years?
I really appreciate some guidance on the above. I can believe that after going the through the stress of becoming a refugee one has to go through this now after 23 years of been a PR.
Questions. If the las time you travelled using your country's passport to go back home is over five years, will that be an issue? And if You are not able find your passport, what other document can be presented? Will citizenship still reach out to CBSA for travel information for only the las five years?
I really appreciate some guidance on the above. I can believe that after going the through the stress of becoming a refugee one has to go through this now after 23 years of been a PR.
There continues to be a lot we do not know about CBSA or IRCC screening PR-refugees as to possible reavailment grounds. My sense is that the longer it has been since the last time a PR-refugee used a home country passport or traveled to the home country, the better the odds are that neither CBSA nor IRCC will initiate an investigation let alone actually pursue cessation proceedings. BUT that is NO guarantee.
We really do not know the risks. I am not sure lawyers know much better the risks, but for any PR-refugee who has obtained a home country passport (which is direct evidence of obtaining home country protection and therefore reavailment) or who has traveled to the home country (raising presumption of reavailment), at the least it would be prudent to consult with a lawyer about this BEFORE making a citizenship application, making sure the lawyer is knowledgeable about the cessation of status issue given the 2012 amendment.
There is no statute of limitations, as such, so grounds for reavailment can be based on acts or events long ago . . . including acts BEFORE the change in law in 2012. Whether, as a matter of practice, CBSA or IRCC will go digging that far back, we do not know. They can. That much we do know. In the past (when Harper was PM) we also know they did. But we do not know more recent policy or practice in this regard.
Reminders:
-- it is imperative to TRUTHFULLY provide information in response to all items in the application, and the failure to do so can have serious consequences
-- lost passports should be reported to appropriate law enforcement authorities
-- scope of inquiries attendant a citizenship application can be and often are beyond the scope of the specific requirements, and again it is imperative to provide COMPLETE and ACCURATE information
Co-sign. A lawyer told me about a case: the man was a PR for over 20 years. He went back to his home country is the 2000s. CBSA or IRCC bring that when he applied in 2016. Apparently, the law is "retroactive".
hum... I hope you reported it...
Thank you all for the responses. I don't think the passport was stolen, i will continue to look for it. In the mean time, base on all the information provided here, it seems that there is no way out and we will need to be patience and hope that the Goverment change the rules.