Success: FC Judgment re Sponsorship
We are thrilled to report that our ALJR to Federal Court was granted. This is a file that we have been working on for quite a long time. The Applicant is a citizen of Somalia who applied for Permanent Resident status through the Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) program. The application was processed through the Canadian Visa Office (High Commission of Canada) in Nairobi, Kenya. The Visa Officer interviewed the applicant and refused the application based on a negative credibility determination.
Here is an excerpt from the decision:
[46] The Officer made four negative credibility findings against the Applicant. I have found three of those four to be unreasonable, as they are not supported by the underlying record. As a result, the Decision is flawed. The one negative credibility finding that is not clearly contradicted is not sufficient, on its own, to support the outcome.
[47] I find the Applicant has met his burden to show the Decision is unreasonable. The shortcomings in the Decision are more than merely superficial or peripheral to the merits of the decision. They are more than a minor misstep. They are the reasons provided by the Officer for denying the Applicant’s application based on his lack of credibility. By not considering the signed Schedule 2, the reasons for the Officer’s credibility findings are not justified, transparent or intelligible.
[48] For the foregoing reasons, I find the Decision is unreasonable.
For a detailed background and facts, please refer to the decision (2022 FC 1560), which will be published on the Federal Court website. Justice Elliott has provided a lengthy 13 page decision that clearly outlines the issues with the Visa Officer’s decision and the errors made in Nairobi. Clearly, Justice Elliott carefully reviewed +400 pages of evidence and arguments in support of this ALJR.
We want to acknowledge the work done by Mr Odaro Omomuwa. He started this ALJR and he had been working with the applicant prior to CIL being retained. His work was done very well and we relied on his work to win this case. If he had not put in that underlying work to pave the way, we may not have been able to successfully make the arguments to the Court.
I have recently published my issues with the Federal Court process. That post has received significant attention from lawyers across Canada, and outside Canada. Many colleagues and friends have agreed with the points. Going to FC can be frustrating and extremely labour-intensive. Based on the amount of work involved in this type of case, lawyers often charge exorbitant fees for this service. We have tried to keep our fees manageable for clients, in particular when the Officer has clearly made an unreasonable decision or there is a clear violation of procedural fairness.
We do our best to support all applicants with their Canadian immigration applications, including refugees overseas who are going through the PSR process. We have worked with Professor Shauna Labman here in Winnipeg, an expert in this area with professional experience dealing face-to-face with refugees abroad. These files are particularly challenging, with long processing times. In addition, the Canadian Visa Office (High Commission of Canada) in Nairobi, Kenya is notoriously difficult to deal with.
