Admissibility hearing chances

[profugus]

I am a refugee claimant and I am going to have to go to an admissibility hearing soon. The reason is serious criminality, a conviction in my home country. My asylum claim is based exactly on the statement that I was convicted unlawfully, disregarding due process. I have a counselor with considerable experience, but even he is clueless about what is ahead of me.

I was arrested in February 2018 and released from detention on bail in March. The bail was surprisingly low, only 3000 dollars. My counselor said this is one of the lowest he has ever seen. I applied for a work permit a few months later and I got it in record time, only four days. It was supposed to take about 90-120, but maybe it helped that I'm a software engineer and there's great need for such experts in Canada. Now I work full time at a company in Montreal. Interestingly CBSA hasn't sent a disclosure for an admissibility hearing until now, six months after I was released. This is also said to be uncommon, they usually send the disclosure within a few weeks after they find an admissibility concern.

Do you think these irregularities may indicate that the government doesn't have very strong arguments against my admissibility, or they don't want to go overboard about their concerns? Should I expect a serious battle or just a mere formality? It just makes no sense that they let me live and work in Canada for half a year while they are concerned that I may be a danger to public safety.

Anyone got experience in asylum-related admissibility cases here?

 

[scylla]

IMO sending the disclosure for an admissibility hearing so late is an indicator of how overburdened the refugee system is right now and isn't any kind of comment on your case. I don't know about the rest. Good luck.

 

[Bornlucky]

I am a refugee claimant and I am going to have to go to an admissibility hearing soon. The reason is serious criminality, a conviction in my home country. My asylum claim is based exactly on the statement that I was convicted unlawfully, disregarding due process. I have a counselor with considerable experience, but even he is clueless about what is ahead of me.

I was arrested in February 2018 and released from detention on bail in March. The bail was surprisingly low, only 3000 dollars. My counselor said this is one of the lowest he has ever seen. I applied for a work permit a few months later and I got it in record time, only four days. It was supposed to take about 90-120, but maybe it helped that I'm a software engineer and there's great need for such experts in Canada. Now I work full time at a company in Montreal. Interestingly CBSA hasn't sent a disclosure for an admissibility hearing until now, six months after I was released. This is also said to be uncommon, they usually send the disclosure within a few weeks after they find an admissibility concern.

Do you think these irregularities may indicate that the government doesn't have very strong arguments against my admissibility, or they don't want to go overboard about their concerns? Should I expect a serious battle or just a mere formality? It just makes no sense that they let me live and work in Canada for half a year while they are concerned that I may be a danger to public safety.

Anyone got experience in asylum-related admissibility cases here?

The timelines shouldn't consume your thinking as it is more likely a series of blips in processing given that the work permit isn't issued by the CBSA and the terms of your release from detention are (mostly) unrelated to the actual preparation of material for the inadmissibility hearing. Don't get me wrong as the information that they had on hand would have played a role in the terms of release, but they were probably determining your likelihood of appearing for the hearing as opposed to any danger that they envisioned you may pose to the public.

Only someone with a complete review of the material that they will rely upon could possibly know what sort of ride you're in for but you cannot take these matters lightly, especially so when you've already been falsely convicted of a serious criminal offense requiring you to escape to Canada and seek protection.

Perhaps the Adjudicator will make a finding contrary to the court of competent jurisdiction that convicted you and not exclude you from the refugee process that currently allows you to hold a work permit and preserve your liberty. If you were wrongly convicted then I certainly hope that you're successful, but these are the stakes so if you can assist your counsel in any fashion to reinforce your case then you ought to concentrate your energies there.

 

[profugus]

January 2021. Still no sign of that disclosure.