Not sure what border agents you are meeting but that length of stay is highly unusual. Your parents should have been refused an extension a long time ago because they are essentially living in Canada. Yes @Peauceful you can try and apply for extension on supervisas but CIC usually refuses them at some point because they are still visitors not residents or citizens.
Possible H&C application? Please help
- Thread starter Peaceful
- Start date
Hello,
Yes, the case has to have merit. There are numerous factors to consider for this balancing or weighting of evidence and the policy goals need to be met.
Involving the MP depends upon the MP office, of course - getting any support at all in one riding or another might never happen. Some MPs don't care or have little exposure to the immigration file. Metropolitan areas will be a riding to riding experience I'd guess.
How common are these letters? I don't know but when MPs wish to know what's up, they have a priority for a case update/review. If they don't get an answer quickly enough they then contact the Minister. Nobody wants that.
If the MP has a depth of knowledge that allows for some sort of greater support for specifics within an application then that will deserve to have some weight when the decision is made. The letter is a part of the case and so it will only have a positive influence toward any specific factor(s), if it is more than a form letter.
To not produce a thorough application weakens the application - ergo, get a proper lawyer and detail every pertinent factor with utmost clarity. Support for the applicant by the community can come from anyone, and MPs more than qualify to demonstrate this same support.
Thanks,
That's interesting and quite unusual, from what I hear, the border agents don't usually extend stay for such long periods on a continuous basis. Can you share a little bit more about the experience at the border? What questions were asked? What did you say for the reason to stay for so long?
Based on my research (links posted below), it seems possible to stay for 2 years on subsequent entry of a supervisa, provided the border agent don't hand-write any date at all, or if he does, does it for 2 years. But I have also heared from some other people where they got stamped for 6 months only, on subsequent super visa entries. So I guess it all depends on border agent's mercy.
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/visitors/examination-admission-port-entry.html
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=426&_ga=2.242831362.1611539591.1532020896-1095779448.1532020896
The $4000 doesn't go to the government it goes to an insurance company to protect your family from a potential expensive medical bill. All visitors spend money in Canada that you can't claim on someone's taxes. Someone could have spent $20K on a 2 week vacation. The supervisa program was created so parents can stay for longer stretches of time while protecting Canada from large medical bills if they get sick. If they got sick they would still need to return to their home country for further treatment or pay cash. If you have kids and your parents have been looking after them (which is illegal) you probably end up saving more money than $24,000. If you look through this forum there are plenty of examples where people have not been given extension or given short extensions. 6 years is incredibly unusual because a supervisa is still a visitor and Canada doesn't want parents to live in Canada unless they have PR.
Ports of entry are interesting places in different parts of the country, no question. Since we are just chatting here, I have a brother who worked for CIC in the early 80s and he was taking a claim (in person at the time) in Toronto. He asked the standard, "how did you come into Canada?"
The person responded that he "rang the bell." To make a long story short, there's a bridge from Maine to New Brunswick (if I recall correctly) that was manned by Customs then. There was a sign there that said "ring bell to enter Canada." It was a bell with a clapper and he swung the cord and the bell rang.
A voice from below the bridge shouted, "what do you want?" He was fishing and when the person said he wanted to enter Canada, the Officer yelled back, "go ahead." Times may have changed, but people haven't.
I like the smooth sailing stories, Maria
If you have a 2 year stamp, and you exit/enter from US well before the 2 year time, I'm assuming the date gets reset? And you were lucky to get a 2 year extension at each occasion? I was thinking of doing the same on some odd occasion but didn't think it would be that easy.
About visitors contributing to the economy, it is infact true that visitors help the economy and is greatly beneficial to the govt. Even though the money paid for insurance, etc. doesn't go to govt directly, but it helps indirectly. It generates revenue for a Canadian company, provides income (commission) to a Canadian resident, taxes to govt. in the form of income taxes, etc. Any money spent by visitors in the form of shopping or as little as grocery, dining out at restaurants, gas, etc. all of this has tax component (HST) which helps govt without costing them much (compared to residents, refugee claimants, etc.).
The very same thing any Canadian does when going to abroad.
It more about this.
PR for parents and grand parents has yearly limits. In exchange they promise a decent processing times instead of waiting several years.
That alone is a good offer. Trust me, there are good amount of Canadians who would be happy without lottery.
Now while some do patiently wait and try their luck, others try to walk around the system and take the shortcut.
That is not really fair for all those waiting. More or less as others have posted, she is not the only widow that has a child in Canada. She is also not the only one that is 50+
And her daughter is not the only child that wants to have their parents close.
In fact there are thousands of similar cases.
Now imagine that every parent on supervisa would have the same idea to ask for H&C. What would happen?
1. The system will become immediately overloaded
2. And everybody will be back on the square 1 with 5-10 years of waiting for a decision that might or might not be favorable (if you want to see how such system works, all you need is to look south to Canada)
3. And lastly such pressure would only end up of scrapping the whole system.
My 2 cents on the matter
So people should not apply for H&C in this situation even though they are permitted to apply because:
1. You have to think about the system when you apply
2. H&C decisions were very rapidly sped up when they worked down the PRRA backlog and centralized the processes, and I assume that you're looking south to the USA, but I don't get the connection here.
3. This (H&C) system has seen so many periods of overloaded inventories and yet it isn't going anywhere anytime soon because it is a handy backdoor for failed claimants who are expensive to remove and who are well established and who will continue to contribute to Canada.
With respect, lots of situations seem to mirror each other - but so what? Each case is determined upon its individual merits and if the factors are there, in the view of your lawyer who knows your specific circumstances, then 1, 2 and 3 won't enter into the thinking of the applicant. This isn't walking around anything - you apply, you're allowed to apply - you remain in status and contravene no laws while asking for consideration to APPLY for permanent residence in Canada. That's what this application does is waive the requirement to apply from outside of Canada.
If you are allowed to apply this way it is a great solution arrived at by CIC in order to provide relief for the hardship of an individual.
Some may remember that family reunification used to be a selling point to attract permanent residents to Canada because you could apply for your parents and grandparents. It wasn't mentioned that they only do so many a year and that almost everyone was paying fees and submitting applications where the odds were abjectly miserable that they would ever join you while living beings. They came up with a good solution with the Supervisa.
have a nice night
When did your parents last get a two years' entry on the super visa?
Do your parents have PGP sponsorship applications in process?
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1. For comparison you can take a very similar system - refugee application. Same like in H&C you are not applying because of your language, education or work experience. You are applying because of "reasons".
And same like H&C, there is no limit how many applications can be accepted (not approved) per year. But same like for H&C there is a limit how many people will be approved.
The hearing times and approvals used to be within 1 year or even shorter. That is no longer the case. People can easily wait 2 - 3 years and another 2 - 3 years for PR itself.
And some rejected applicants do enter the H&C.
Now imagine that yearly amount of applications will be increasing. It will create following effects:
1. The waiting time will be longer and longer.
2. The situation will be more visible to the large public.
3. In a long term there will we desire to change the whole system and the change might not be for better for applicants.
H&C is much more subtle but in a way overloads resources that are meant for other services.
And yes you are right you can be selfish just like everybody else, just too much of overuse one system might trigger certain changes. (see Ontario elections as an example).
Technically any system admitting other citizens to Canada can go as long as there is a political setup for it.
In case of parents and grand parents, flocking towards it might end up in certain adjustment and different conditions.
And I would see it more like a promo activity rather than anything else, but also a promo activity does have its limits.
When it comes to USA they do have the same thing Canada had before - a system where anybody can apply for a family sponsorship. but they will be waiting in an endless and ever growing queue. (10 + years is nothing exceptional there).
I would personally avoid the H&C route if I was in your shoes (but obviously your choice). Based on the info you've provided, low chances of success since both of your parents are still alive and are relatively healthy. Once H&C is refused, entering Canada on a super visa will most likely become a lot more difficult. Best option would be to apply for PR through the parent/grandparent lottery and to continue to leverage the super visa to stay in Canada until then.
Not sure how they were allowed to stay for 36 months on initial entry because the maximum authorized stay allowed on entry has been up to 2 years.
The length of admission at the POE was changed a few months ago. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to know if your parents are allowed yet another 2 years' stay if they flagpole or when they apply for an extension sometime next year. It could help other parents
It's extremely unusual because the maximum stay allowed on initial entry, at the POE, from the time the super visa was introduced in 2011 has always been two years. Anyways
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