Need advise ASAP - Fiance refugee claim denied today****

[mimi263]

Hi All,

I´m seeking guidance in our situation. I´m engaged to be married in September this year, I am a canadian citizen, has a good secured career, my fiance just got word today his refugee claim was denied. My question is, what should we expect to happen next? We want to know how next to proceed? We´ve already made payments on our wedding and I don´t know what to do. He´s also waiting to hear back regarding his work permit, he submitted his application in June and still waiting to hear back, will this now denied claim affect his work permit?

 

[LeisaP]

Hi All,

I´m seeking guidance in our situation. I´m engaged to be married in September this year, I am a canadian citizen, has a good secured career, my fiance just got word today his refugee claim was denied. My question is, what should we expect to happen next? We want to know how next to proceed? We´ve already made payments on our wedding and I don´t know what to do. He´s also waiting to hear back regarding his work permit, he submitted his application in June and still waiting to hear back, will this now denied claim affect his work permit?

hey! there isnt many people on here that know the refugee process inside and out. but my husband was also a refugee (failed) so i know it pretty well!.

so first. your fiance was denied, has he received the paperwork in the mail yet stating all the reasons for beign denied? if not he will get that next. these papers can take 1 month-12 months to receive. it was about 6 months from the hearing date that we finally recieved the papers.

after this your fiance will receive a offer for PRAA. this could take another 3-8 months to receive.
One he receives this. if he wants to apply for PRAA he will have 30 days to submit the form asking for PRAA than he will have another 30 days or so (i cant quite remember ) to submit extra evidence. After the evidence is submitted it will take about 2-6 months for the PRR answer, which is NO 95% of the time.. alot of people do the PRAA to have extra time to get things in order. this is what we did, we did the praa because we werent quite ready to submit the sponsorship application. so it bought us some time.

Once you receive the answer for PRAA, CBSA officers will come to your fiances house and give him a letter with a date for him to meet with a CBSA officer. at this meeting they will give you a removal date! usually the maximum is 30 days but most people get 3 weeks, depends how nice the officer is.

than on the removal date your husband MUST leave canada before or on that day if he overstays they will put out an arrest warrant for him and come looking for him (very bad idea! it will make sponsoring him so much harder)

as for the work permit. no, even if he is denied he can still be approved for a work permit.

my husband was denied and 8 months later received his new work permit valid for one year.
although even if you have a work permit they wont let you stay any longer. (down side)

so you are planning to sponsor your fiance i assume?
hopeing you have a few months left before he is actually asked to leave.

get all your evidence together as soon as you can, make the evidence very strong!! and submit it as soon as you are married and have your marriage certificate! this way the process will be well underway and may be close to complete before he is even asked to leave

may i ask what country he is from??

if you have any more questions feel free to ask! like i said im quite familiar with the refugee process.

 

[mimi263]

Thank you for the advise, I really appreciate any help/preparation in this. My fiancé is Nigerian, we only found out today his claim was denied. His lawyer is submitting an appeal.

 

[mimi263]

Yes I plan to sponsor him once were married. Also, If he's asked to leave, how long does the process take for him to be able to come back to Canada?

 

[LeisaP]

Thank you for the advise, I really appreciate any help/preparation in this. My fiancé is Nigerian, we only found out today his claim was denied. His lawyer is submitting an appeal.

no problem!, we were freaked out when my spouses refugee got denied.
thats good he is filing an appeal!. this will give you much more time, as well hopefully it gets approved. i have heard it takes a long time to file an appeal.
But even if you are appealing the refugee you can still start the spousal sponsorship, it may even get approved before the refugee stuff is finalized, which is good news for you and your fiance, as well as for the government.
if i were you id do the appeal and the spousal sponsorship

If he is asked to leave,
for nigerian applicants the office that processes them is acrra ghana.
so for stage 1 (when cic approves you as a sponsor) takes about 3 months currently.
and for stage 2, the application will be passed to ghana, which has an average processing time of 12 months, although this is only average and some finish faster. when its complete he will get his visa and be able to come back to Canada

the only thing you have to think about if you apply for the sponsorship while the appeal is going on if your husband gets called for an interview he will have to go to acrra for it. which he wouldnt be able to do if the refugee is still in process. This might be something you want to discuss with your lawyer if he/she knows much about spousal sponsorships

 

[mimi263]

Here is a reply I got from someone, are you familiar with this? It's brought my stress level back up reading this.

MSG from someone:

Read the Balance Refugee Reform Act it was introduced last week. Things have drastically changed no longer will failed claimants be allowed to wait for ever.

Filing an application for leave to appeal is highly unlikely to do anything because the RAD is introduced. It depends on how the |BRR Act is going to be introduced.

What is in a piece of paper - Get Married now! Then again in September.

*** How does this affect our situation?!***

 

[scylla]

The official announcement and information is here:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/reform.asp

I think it's probaby difficult for most of us to say how this will affect you since this is so new. It would probably be a very good idea to consult with a lawyer at this point.

 

[computergeek]

It would probably be a very good idea to consult with a lawyer at this point.

Fortunately the OP indicated that they were using a lawyer. Having a lawyer familiar with refugee cases is particularly important.

However, it is unlikely that a removal order will be issued prior to your wedding next month, so you are likely safe, at least with respect to the removal order.

To the OP:

Be prepared for additional scrutiny of your application, because a failure of a prior application will greatly increase the scrutiny of your relationship, particularly given that your wedding is after the refusal. So make sure you can demonstrate the natural growth of it and point out that the wedding was scheduled before the refusal, as that carries quite a bit of weight.

Good luck!

 

[LeisaP]

Fortunately the OP indicated that they were using a lawyer. Having a lawyer familiar with refugee cases is particularly important.

However, it is unlikely that a removal order will be issued prior to your wedding next month, so you are likely safe, at least with respect to the removal order.

To the OP:

Be prepared for additional scrutiny of your application, because a failure of a prior application will greatly increase the scrutiny of your relationship, particularly given that your wedding is after the refusal. So make sure you can demonstrate the natural growth of it and point out that the wedding was scheduled before the refusal, as that carries quite a bit of weight.

Good luck!

Yes this is right.
Even though they brought in the new procedures, this does not mean he will be gone within the next month,
it still takes a long time to process the paperwork.
it used to take 2 years or more. so they are trying to reduce this time, but refugee is still a very delicate process and even when they reduce it, they are just meaning he wont be waiting 2 years. it will be much less.
But he definatly will not be removed before your wedding. there are still to many steps he needs to go through, so dont worry, your wedding will be fine in sept.

but yes evidence from day one to now and continueing is incredibly important, make sure your sponsorship application is very strong, even if you are married and you dont need to prove certain things like joint bank accounts, life insurance etc. do it anyways, put more evidence than they ask for so theres no chance they would think its a marriage of convience.

p.s dont get scared by this, I know many failed refugees who were succesfully sponsored by their spouses.

 

[mimi263]

Thank you everyone for your responses! LeisaP thank you for your message, it will be of great help!

It's hard for for me to keep my mental state settled in not worrying with reading the new bill, everything just seems so uncertain because there isn't a clear time frame on how quickly the process will be now re: appealing the denied claim.

Keeping positive though, were so grateful for the support

 

[LeisaP]

Thank you everyone for your responses! LeisaP thank you for your message, it will be of great help!

It's hard for for me to keep my mental state settled in not worrying with reading the new bill, everything just seems so uncertain because there isn't a clear time frame on how quickly the process will be now re: appealing the denied claim.

Keeping positive though, were so grateful for the support

your welcome!!
yeah i know the feeling, its unsettleing.
but everything will work out!
feel free to ask if you have more questions.

good luck stay positive!!

 

[PMM]

Hi

no problem!, we were freaked out when my spouses refugee got denied.
thats good he is filing an appeal!. this will give you much more time, as well hopefully it gets approved. i have heard it takes a long time to file an appeal.
But even if you are appealing the refugee you can still start the spousal sponsorship, it may even get approved before the refugee stuff is finalized, which is good news for you and your fiance, as well as for the government.
if i were you id do the appeal and the spousal sponsorship

If he is asked to leave,
for nigerian applicants the office that processes them is acrra ghana.
so for stage 1 (when cic approves you as a sponsor) takes about 3 months currently.
and for stage 2, the application will be passed to ghana, which has an average processing time of 12 months, although this is only average and some finish faster. when its complete he will get his visa and be able to come back to Canada

the only thing you have to think about if you apply for the sponsorship while the appeal is going on if your husband gets called for an interview he will have to go to acrra for it. which he wouldnt be able to do if the refugee is still in process. This might be something you want to discuss with your lawyer if he/she knows much about spousal sponsorships

You may want to re-think your earlier answer. As of today you can't apply for a PRRA for failed refugee claimant until 1 year has passed since the refugee refusal. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2012/ob440E.asp So the OP's intended is probably getting pretty close to removal ready. I.E. if he doesn't leave within 30 days, his removal order turns into a deportation, and still no PRRA allowed.

 

[mimi263]

More questions:

My fiancé had sent his work permit renewal in June, he didn't realize he had to send the $150 along with the form. When we called the customer service line they said they haven't started looking at application for June. An agent suggested him to send in a fresh application along with the payment, now were looking online for the application and confused which one to print, please help! Also Unfortunately he was laid off from his job last week so this is added stress to our lives, does he have to have a
Job offer to apply for a work permit?

Another question, I was on another site and it was giving questions to answer to know if your eligible to sponsor, one was if family members of the person doing the sponsorship had
Run in with the law. Will this affect our application of my father has
Been found guilty of a crime?

Thanks so much!

 

[LeisaP]

Hi


You may want to re-think your earlier answer. As of today you can't apply for a PRRA for failed refugee claimant until 1 year has passed since the refugee refusal. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2012/ob440E.asp So the OP's intended is probably getting pretty close to removal ready. I.E. if he doesn't leave within 30 days, his removal order turns into a deportation, and still no PRRA allowed.

hmm this is very interesting.
thanks for the bulletin!! im going to read this!


but they are filing an appeal i believe, so that may cause a delay... if your still allowed to file appeals the same as before..

 

[LeisaP]

More questions:

My fiancé had sent his work permit renewal in June, he didn't realize he had to send the $150 along with the form. When we called the customer service line they said they haven't started looking at application for June. An agent suggested him to send in a fresh application along with the payment, now were looking online for the application and confused which one to print, please help! Also Unfortunately he was laid off from his job last week so this is added stress to our lives, does he have to have a
Job offer to apply for a work permit?

Another question, I was on another site and it was giving questions to answer to know if your eligible to sponsor, one was if family members of the person doing the sponsorship had
Run in with the law. Will this affect our application of my father has
Been found guilty of a crime?

Thanks so much!

to renew an open work permit he doesnt need a job offer.
but im sorry to hear that.

hopefully he finds another job soon.
...
criminalities may affect your application. depends what the conviction was, if they were put in jail, if the charges were dropped, how long ago it occured etc. its really hard to say.