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Secondary inspection at Poe airport refugee citizen

eastguy123

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Oct 26, 2019
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My friend who is refugee turned citizenship went to his home country due to passing of his father for 3 weeks for signing some docs as his father did not have any will. When he come back at airport officer at secondary Poe asked him question about travel to his home country even as a Canadian citizen. He is worried about this? What would happen to him. I had advise him not to go even for a short period of time but he did not listen. Would he get mail or something?
 
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GuyanaGirl

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I don’t think he has anything to be worried about if he hasn’t done anything against the law. Canadian citizens get pulled into secondary and questioned all the time !

I don’t know what country your friend is originally from but maybe travel there is unusual so they’re asking questions .
Just relax , if it isn’t illegal for him to go back home then he can go as often as he wishes .
 

wksj

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Oct 7, 2021
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If they were going to do something, they would have done it at the border. They probably wanted to know why your friend would go to the country they escaped from as a refugee and were satisfied with the answers.
 

akbardxb

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Nov 18, 2013
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My friend who is refugee turned citizenship went to his home country due to passing of his father for 3 weeks for signing some docs as his father did not have any will. When he come back at airport officer at secondary Poe asked him question about travel to his home country even as a Canadian citizen. He is worried about this? What would happen to him. I had advise him not to go even for a short period of time but he did not listen. Would he get mail or something?
As a protected person / refugee, if you travel back to the place, even on a Canadian passport, where one escaped from, it is likely to raise queries because that could mean there isn’t a threat to the refugee’s person back in the country of origin.
 
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maddy044

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Jan 22, 2016
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My friend who is refugee turned citizenship went to his home country due to passing of his father for 3 weeks for signing some docs as his father did not have any will. When he come back at airport officer at secondary Poe asked him question about travel to his home country even as a Canadian citizen. He is worried about this? What would happen to him. I had advise him not to go even for a short period of time but he did not listen. Would he get mail or something?
As long as there is no misrepresentation involved at the time of refugee claim/citizenship application your friend can go anywhere he wants for as long as they want including their home country AFTER they get Canadian citizenship. This could have been a major issue if they were still a permanent resident or their citizenship application was in progress. Nothing to worry about, as @GuyanaGirl said, Canadian citizens can get pulled for a secondary too.
 

armoured

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Feb 1, 2015
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As long as there is no misrepresentation involved at the time of refugee claim/citizenship application your friend can go anywhere he wants for as long as they want including their home country AFTER they get Canadian citizenship.
I repeat my ritual warning, though, about consular matters - if the traveller should have any difficulty at all with local authorities, there is NOTHING that the Canadian government can do.

Anyone who is still considered a citizen in their home country (or any country really) faces this issue: Canada will have no rights under the international consular affairs agreements to assist if that person is a citizen locally.

This is true for all countries but obviously may be a more serious issue for (former) refugees.
 
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eastguy123

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Oct 26, 2019
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As long as there is no misrepresentation involved at the time of refugee claim/citizenship application your friend can go anywhere he wants for as long as they want including their home country AFTER they get Canadian citizenship. This could have been a major issue if they were still a permanent resident or their citizenship application was in progress. Nothing to worry about, as @GuyanaGirl said, Canadian citizens can get pulled for a secondary too.
 

eastguy123

Star Member
Oct 26, 2019
94
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If they were going to do something, they would have done it at the border. They probably wanted to know why your friend would go to the country they escaped from as a refugee and were satisfied with the answers.
Officer told him if things well so he would not go through secondary Poe again. Also officer took his driver license and input data into system. He thinks address.What does he meant? Are they going his file?
 

eastguy123

Star Member
Oct 26, 2019
94
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Officer told him if things well so he would not go through secondary Poe again. Also officer took his driver license and input data into system. He thinks address.What does he meant? Are they going his file?
 

eastguy123

Star Member
Oct 26, 2019
94
10
If they were going to do something, they would have done it at the border. They probably wanted to know why your friend would go to the country they escaped from as a refugee and were satisfied with the answers.
Officer told him if things well so he would not go through secondary Poe again. Also officer took his driver license and input data into system. He thinks address.What does he meant? Are they going his file?
 

armoured

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Feb 1, 2015
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Officer told him if things well so he would not go through secondary Poe again. Also officer took his driver license and input data into system. He thinks address.What does he meant? Are they going his file?
Anyone who tries to tell you anything would be guessing, really.

But it could be as simple as what the officer said: there was some flag that took him to secondary (reasons for which we could only speculate) and that he's made a note to remove that flag. (Again speculating: the flag could eaisly be something from well before ie before he became a citizen and not really relevant any more)

Driver's license: might have noted the DL# for ID / provincial residency, but quite possible that the info taken from that was the address. (Honestly, I think some prefer to get that info from DL rather than get it verbally and make mistakes)

But based only on what you've provided, there's no obvious reason to be concerned. The thing is, though, since no-one knows your friend's file or history, we don't know whether this short version leaves out anything important.
 
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eastguy123

Star Member
Oct 26, 2019
94
10
As long as there is no misrepresentation involved at the time of refugee claim/citizenship application your friend can go anywhere he wants for as long as they want including their home country AFTER they get Canadian citizenship. This could have been a major issue if they were still a permanent resident or their citizenship application was in progress. Nothing to worry about, as @GuyanaGirl said, Canadian citizens can get pulled for a secondary too.
mispresentation in citizenship application while apply for it to his travel to home country?
 

116sg17

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Jan 26, 2021
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Anyone who tries to tell you anything would be guessing, really.

But it could be as simple as what the officer said: there was some flag that took him to secondary (reasons for which we could only speculate) and that he's made a note to remove that flag. (Again speculating: the flag could eaisly be something from well before ie before he became a citizen and not really relevant any more)

Driver's license: might have noted the DL# for ID / provincial residency, but quite possible that the info taken from that was the address. (Honestly, I think some prefer to get that info from DL rather than get it verbally and make mistakes)

But based only on what you've provided, there's no obvious reason to be concerned. The thing is, though, since no-one knows your friend's file or history, we don't know whether this short version leaves out anything important.
True and this could have been regarding the past removal order. CBSA site says:

If you are a refugee claimant, you will receive a conditional Removal Order. If your refugee claim is accepted, the Removal Order will not be enforced. If you become a permanent resident of Canada the Removal Order will be void. If your refugee claim is rejected, the Removal Order will then come into force.

https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/security-securite/rem-ren-eng.html

Also, if they face the problem next time, I think they should ask if there is something specific causing this. The officer may or may not share information but I think it does not hurt to ask.
 

armoured

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Feb 1, 2015
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True and this could have been regarding the past removal order.
...
Also, if they face the problem next time, I think they should ask if there is something specific causing this. The officer may or may not share information but I think it does not hurt to ask.
That makes sense, although of course one would thimk they might remove such flags when the PR becomes a citizen ... but much that could be automatic often isn't.

And yes, no harm in asking (as long as the officer seems friendly); my PR spouse has a flag we can't get removed but at least we know what it is (and it's meaningless but annoying because secondary inspection).
 
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akbardxb

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Nov 18, 2013
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Mississauga
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mispresentation in citizenship application while apply for it to his travel to home country?
Key word : REFUGEE
If there is no threat it could be treated as misrepresentation. Whether you are a citizen or not, the ability to travel freely to a place from where you escaped because of a threat to life is problematic.