Are the immigration forms in support of an immigration application to immigrate to Canada designed to ‘get you’?  Perhaps – if ‘you’ includes someone who has a criminal record, or a criminal charge, or has failed to declare a relative.  The ultimate goal of Canadian immigration forms is to make the job of a Canadian immigration officer easier, given the competing goals of getting the proper people to immigrate to Canada (not just any people).

The work load of Canadian immigration officers and Canada’s visa officers is apparently high.  Canadian immigration forms were designed so Canadian immigration officers can conduct an assessment of persons seeking Canadian immigration in an efficient way.  This means that there are often as many as a dozen forms for a single application for Canadian immigration.  Consequently the forms for Canadian immigration often pose the same questions more than once.

A cynic would assert that the repeated asking of the same question on Canadian immigration forms has nothing to do with helping Canada’s visa officers or Canadian immigration officers process cases more efficiently.  Those with a cynical bent would assert that the maze of many different forms that support an application for immigration to Canada is intentionally confusing so as to try to trick a person into being inconsistent.  I’m of the view that the forms for Canadian immigration are not a trap, but can turn into one if you don’t do them properly.

Canada’s immigration law does not provide much detail about how to complete the forms.  Section 10 of the Regulations for Canada immigration is quoted below:

10. (1) Subject to paragraphs 28 (b) to (d), an application under these Regulations shall

(a) be made in writing using the form provided by the Department, if any;

(b) be signed by the applicant;

(c) include all information and documents required by these Regulations, as well as any other evidence required by the Act;

(d) be accompanied by evidence of payment of the applicable fee, if any, set out in these Regulations; and

(e) if there is an accompanying spouse or common-law partner,identify who is the principal applicant and who is the accompanying spouse or common-law partner.

It is not uncommon for applicants for Canadian immigration to fail to declare a close relative like a child or a previous common-law partner.  This failure to declare a relative when applying for immigration to Canada comes back to haunt the person when they try to sponsor that undeclared child, or undeclared partner.   It is impossible for an undeclared relative  to be sponsored, but there are other ways for them to legally immigrate.

It is invariably the case that a refugee claimant in Canada signs a conditional removal order when starting the refugee process.  When coming across refugee claimants whose claims were refused a year or two prior, I have yet to find a single refugee claimant remembering  signing the conditional removal order (part of a bunch of other forms filed when starting a refugee claim) which started their refugee process.  In other words, most refugees don’t know that they are given a deportation order at the start of their refugee process.

I’ve seen a very dramatic omission in an application for Canadian citizenship;  the person did not declare a conviction on his Canadian citizenship application.  This led to the process to remove his Canadian citizenship.

If you’re unclear about how to respond to a question on a Canadian immigration form, you may wish to hire someone whose job is to interpret and/or present the Canadian immigration forms to Canadian immigration officers or Canadian Courts.

A Toronto Immigration lawyer with a broad practice in Canadian immigration law will periodically have to represent clients who are detained by the immigration authorities. The concentration of people, and hence immigration clientele in the Toronto area necessitates the numerous detention facilities close to, or in Toronto.

Main Entrance at 385 Rexdale Blvd

The official holding centre for immigration-related detainees is the immigration detention centre at 385 Rexdale Boulevard, conveniently located near Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.  Thus, if a Canadian immigration officer at the airport cannot determine the identity of a person seeking entry to Canada, or determines that a person seeking entry to Canada is a convict, or a danger, or will go ‘underground’, then it is only a ten minute drive from the airport to detention at 385 Rexdale to place that person in detention.

This address also houses the Immigration Division of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, the tribunal which determines whether it is justified for the immigration authorities to detain a person under Canada’s Immigration laws.  The administrative advantage to this is obvious: transporting a detained person to his detention hearing is just few steps downstairs, rather than to a different facility.

385 Rexdale blvd also accommodates children of those persons detained under Canada’s immigration laws.  For this reason, when 385 Rexdale Blvd is full, it is the adult males who are often detained at the Toronto West Detention Centre, also very close to Toronto’s international airport (so as to allow kids to stay at 385 Rexdale, rather than a jail).

“The West” is a real, honest to goodness jail, characterized by brutalist architecture, and the orange and brown colour pastiche that was so popular in the mid-1970s.  As experienced lawyers will tell you, the staff at real jails is characterized by grumpiness, and mild depression, some giving off random quips that are sometimes insightful, but usually intimidating.  Not a lot of smiles to go around.  It is not a good idea for anyone to be in a jail too long, even one in Canada.

The East Detention Centre (“The East”) is also a ‘real jail’, located just south of Eglinton and Warden in Scarborough, the east side of Toronto. It also has that preoccupation with brown bricks and small windows.   It occasionally houses people who have run afoul of Canadian immigration law, in addition to persons charged under Canada’s Criminal Code.   Years ago, I learnt something of the sub-culture within jails when I represented an Egyptian male, slight of frame, and shorter than average.   He was detained by Canada’s immigration laws because of a white collar crime (which made sense, given his stature).  He complained that the larger inmates would take his food and take longer in the shower.  He cited these reasons as why he really wanted to get out of there.

Representatives of the Immigration Division, a sub-tribunal of Canada’s Immigration Refugee Board, have to travel there, and record their detention hearing with what looks like a Sony walkman.  The recording is then subsequently transcribed.  The review of the detention under Canada’s immigration laws takes place in one of the three rooms which are too small to accommodate the Immigration Division judge (or ‘Member’), the person detained, his lawyer, and the opposing party (the person who represents the Canada Border Service Agency).   A colleague of mine remarked that it seemed like he was in the  ‘lap’ of the judge.   It is really a contrast when compared to the courtrooms at the Federal Court of Canada, for example, which are newer, accommodate laptops, and are at least five to 10 times as big.

The proliferation of video conferencing has been a boon to Canadian immigration lawyers, as well as Canada’s immigration department.  This allows persons detained at the other more far-flung jails in Ontario to have their Canadian immigration detention matters to be heard at 385 Rexdale blvd.  This central processing of persons detained in many other jails outside of Toronto makes 385 Rexdale a hub of activity for Toronto’s immigration lawyers.  That’s another reason why there are so many immigration lawyers in Toronto.

Toronto Immigration Lawyers: A bad Influence? (PNP)

Toronto is the financial capital of Canada. The concentration of wealth in Toronto of necessity leads to spin-off endeavours in the arts, and other service industries of diverse skill levels.  People with various skills and backgrounds must be hired to fill these positions.

There many immigration lawyers in Toronto due to demand.  The demand comes from the immigrants who are settled in Toronto (and want their relatives to come to Canada), as well as the needs of various businesses resident in Toronto. However, by Canadian standards, Toronto has too many people.  Canada’s best agricultural land is near big cities like Toronto, and urban sprawl is paving over this highly arable land.  Toronto’s infrastructure is overtaxed in ways such as the gridlock on the 401, trying to get a seat on the TTC subway during rush-hour, and difficulties in finding a GO train that won’t breakdown.  Is this (in part) due to Toronto having too many immigration lawyers?

The government of Canada and the provincial governments of Canada have tried to address the desire to have immigrants settle in other parts of Canada (besides Toronto) with various Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP).  These programs tend to be driven by the short term employment needs in a province. As a consequence, the availability of these programs rises or falls depending on other factors such as the economic climate.

Although there are paths to permanent residency through the various PNPs, these are usually anchored in a requirement to have a job offer in the province, or to invest a sizeable amount of money in the province.  In the former scenario, a prospective immigrant’s long term physical presence in the province is likely (since a job is waiting for them).  In the latter scenario, the potential immigrant’s money would be lost if they leave the province (and that potential immigrant may lose the opportunity to acquire permanent resident status).

There are no doubt, a sizeable number of immigration lawyers outside of Toronto.  But in the age of cheap and abundant forms of communication, it is highly questionable as to whether the immigration lawyers in Toronto are at a disadvantage when offering to represent clients wishing to avail themselves of one of the PNP programs.  For example, my immigration law office is in Toronto, and I have had no difficulty in representing a client before the Newfoundland and Manitoba immigration authorities.

In summary, if there are too many people settling in Toronto, don’t blame immigration lawyers who are based in Toronto.