REJECTED DUE TO CSQ LATENESS? APPEAL HELP!

[LovinglyGrimm]

PLEASE HELP.

My husband and I got married on April 2017 and though it took a while we were able to begin filing for the entire process around February of last year. My husband, a Canadian citizen of Quebec, is going to sponsor me, a US citizen, through the family spousal sponsorship route.

We are using representatives. We have passed every expensive hurdle and obstacle in our path, but then came the time to send all the papers out for the CSQ things sort of went silent. Roughly 3-4 months passed to this date, but they still would not send us the CSQ we needed to give to the Canadian government to continue the processing. Our representatives filed for an extension each time, but this last time apparently it has been rejected.

We then receive news that despite all of this being out of our hands, that they have refused the extension and rejected my application due to not having the CSQ.

This whole process has been an expensive nightmare, and despite doing everything correctly, our representatives assure us we did everything right, we are now being forced to try to figure out an appeal process.

I don't know where to start. We attempted to gather funds for an additional lawyer, since apparently our representatives don't do that , but this whole thing has been so expensive it is doubtful we will be able to come up with anything significant as far as funding.

I looked at the appeal application and checklist online and it seems to only ask for two documents. While I was first optimistic because of this, I then read that it is highly recommended I hire a lawyer because apparently this, in itself, is going to be a rough process that I have to figure out within the 30 day period.

Does anyone have any advice? Anyone been through this before and can tell me whether or not I should be worried or if I truly need a lawyer or not for the process? This whole thing has gotten me very confused. Any help would be incredibly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[kcward7]

PLEASE HELP.

My husband and I got married on April 2017 and though it took a while we were able to begin filing for the entire process around February of last year. My husband, a Canadian citizen of Quebec, is going to sponsor me, a US citizen, through the family spousal sponsorship route.

We are using representatives. We have passed every expensive hurdle and obstacle in our path, but then came the time to send all the papers out for the CSQ things sort of went silent. Roughly 3-4 months passed to this date, but they still would not send us the CSQ we needed to give to the Canadian government to continue the processing. Our representatives filed for an extension each time, but this last time apparently it has been rejected.

We then receive news that despite all of this being out of our hands, that they have refused the extension and rejected my application due to not having the CSQ.

This whole process has been an expensive nightmare, and despite doing everything correctly, our representatives assure us we did everything right, we are now being forced to try to figure out an appeal process.

I don't know where to start. We attempted to gather funds for an additional lawyer, since apparently our representatives don't do that , but this whole thing has been so expensive it is doubtful we will be able to come up with anything significant as far as funding.

I looked at the appeal application and checklist online and it seems to only ask for two documents. While I was first optimistic because of this, I then read that it is highly recommended I hire a lawyer because apparently this, in itself, is going to be a rough process that I have to figure out within the 30 day period.

Does anyone have any advice? Anyone been through this before and can tell me whether or not I should be worried or if I truly need a lawyer or not for the process? This whole thing has gotten me very confused. Any help would be incredibly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

The first thing that comes to mind is just applying again instead of appealing. Appeals take years and are time consuming and costly.

If you apply again, assuming you have a straightforward case as it sounds like you do, you do not need a lawyer - you should be able to tackle it yourself.

Have you thought about proceeding this way instead? Is that a possibility?

 

[LovinglyGrimm]

Thank you so much for the quick reply.

It really takes so long to the degree that I should just consider applying again?

It would be something that would take a bit of time to amount all over again. The situation is that my husband and I wanted to be together as soon as possible, so I've been a housewife formally here to visit and then I leave before the 6 month period is up for legality's sake since I, of course, don't want to step on any toes. He's been our only source of income.

I considered attempting to tackle the problem on my own in hopes of saving the application and in turn money, but I became incredibly daunted when the Canadian website suggested a lawyer and claimed it to be difficult.

 

[kcward7]

Thank you so much for the quick reply.

It really takes so long to the degree that I should just consider applying again?

It would be something that would take a bit of time to amount all over again. The situation is that my husband and I wanted to be together as soon as possible, so I've been a housewife formally here to visit and then I leave before the 6 month period is up for legality's sake since I, of course, don't want to step on any toes. He's been our only source of income.

I considered attempting to tackle the problem on my own in hopes of saving the application and in turn money, but I became incredibly daunted when the Canadian website suggested a lawyer and claimed it to be difficult.

Appeals take years.

It will likely cost you more in time and money, significantly more, to appeal, then just accept that you were correctly refused and reapply, in my opinion. Others may weigh in differently, that's just what immediately comes to mind reading your situation.

 

[LovinglyGrimm]

Thank you very much for your feedback nonetheless.

 

[scylla]

Appealing takes years.

Do you have the CSQ now? If so, you can try contacting the visa office to request reconsideration and include the CSQ. No guarantee this will change anything but worth a try.

 

[LovinglyGrimm]

Appealing takes years.

Do you have the CSQ now? If so, you can try contacting the visa office to request reconsideration and include the CSQ. No guarantee this will change anything but worth a try.

No, not yet. Despite the fact that we applied with all the correct forms at the time, they NOW want us to give a different form. As in, we got the request a few days ago. It, in theory, should process and be approved without any dilemma sometime in the near future. :/ We'll see though.

 

[scylla]

No, not yet. Despite the fact that we applied with all the correct forms at the time, they NOW want us to give a different form. As in, we got the request a few days ago. It, in theory, should process and be approved without any dilemma sometime in the near future. :/ We'll see though.

Hmm.. That's odd. Maybe your representative messed something up with the CSQ process and that's the reason for the delay?

 

[LovinglyGrimm]

Hmm.. That's odd. Maybe your representative messed something up with the CSQ process and that's the reason for the delay?

I'm worried that may be the case, but I really don't have a way to defend against that, huh? They attached emails in which they requested extensions, but those are fairly easy to fashion together, to show evidence that they had attempted to contact them again.

 

[scylla]

I'm worried that may be the case, but I really don't have a way to defend against that, huh? They attached emails in which they requested extensions, but those are fairly easy to fashion together, to show evidence that they had attempted to contact them again.

If your rep messed up, that unfortunately doesn't help you in any way with regards to the PR application. Whether you put together the application or a rep/lawyer did it for you, IRCC doesn't care.

It's strange that you've run into issues with the CSQ and they are requesting additional forms. That makes it sound like the right stuff wasn't submitted. Anyway - what's done is done.

 

[monkeys89]

Your representatives are certified representatives with ICCRC? You can raise a complaint there if you think that they have mishandled your file. Registered consultants should have insurance to cover off errors and omissions and you should at least ask for a review to see if something happened.

But yes, applying again will take less time than appealing.

 

[kcward7]

Your representatives are certified representatives with ICCRC? You can raise a complaint there if you think that they have mishandled your file. Registered consultants should have insurance to cover off errors and omissions and you should at least ask for a review to see if something happened.

But yes, applying again will take less time than appealing.

Unfortunately it's not that easy. I had a similar experience with my lawyer that had I not caught it in time would have cost us the application. If you are able to prove they made a mistake you'd next be looking at a cost assessment process to understand if your legal team in fact owes you for services that you paid for that they failed to provide. Another long, tedious process that likely isn't worth it. Just coming from my personal experience.