Franz Immigration Services offers professional services to support your immigration to Canada

Draw backs to Following the Standard Checklist

Request: How to respond to a “Procedural Fairness Letter”

Scenario: A U.S. citizen, let’s call him Michael, applied for spousal sponsorship, confident that he thoroughly understood the requirements, completed the forms, and closely followed the checklist. However, a year and a half (!) later, he received a letter stating that the officer is not satisfied with the application and believes the applicant has not provided sufficient evidence to be admitted to Canada.

Reason for Refusal: Incomplete package of documents and insufficient information about children from his first marriage.

Throughout the process, we found that Michael did not provide sufficient information about his children, his financial obligations to them, and omitted critical details of the situation and all circumstances surrounding his relationship with his ex-wife and children. So, delving deep into the details of the client’s circumstances, I prepared a package of additional documents to serve as supporting evidence of his situation and also shed light on circumstances previously omitted by the client.

Outcome:The case was successfully closed with approval and the client subsequently obtained PR status!
Due to not fully understanding all the nuances of the sponsorship program, during the waiting period the client faced the following:

1. He did not receive an open work permit as per program conditions, and in turn, did not work for almost 2 years although he had the right to do so.
2. As such, he did not have health insurance and was required to pay for an emergency surgical procedure independently. Thankfully, we were able to address this concern and the invoice was cancelled.

The consequences of lack of awareness vary from case to case, but one fact remains constant: the deeper our knowledge and understanding, the easier it is to anticipate and mitigate potential challenges and their consequences.