I Thought I'd post an update on the odyssey my wife's PR application has become.
As most of you who have been following this thread know, my wife has a DUI conviction from Korea that wasn't disclosed on the initial CHIR we had done when we submitted her PR application. When we found out about it in August 2013, I consulted a lawyer. He's an old university friend of mine who used to work for the old Immigration Appeal Board before opening his own immigration practice in the early 1990s.
He felt the situation could go one of two ways. He said, CIC could simply reject her application immediately due to her criminality issue and we could then appeal and likely succeed on H&R grounds. Alternatively, the VO might wait until December 2013 at which point my wife would be become eligible for Criminal Rehabilitation and CIC would ask us to submit such an application in order to overcome her DUI conviction and pave the way for granting her PR. So, we waited. Since she had the criminality issue she had no entitlement to a visitor's visa, so we applied for a TRP through Vegereville in September 2013.. That gave her implied status to stay here with me.
The first day my wife was eligible for Criminal Rehabilitation was December 20th, 2013. On December 20th I get an email from CIC. This time they requested the court documents underlying her DUI conviction. I thought this was a good sign and that they were probably going to request an application for Criminal Rehabilitation next. I thought it would save time if I just went ahead and submitted it now. I got all the requested court documents sent to Manila from Korea and in late January I finally got all the documents necessary for the Criminal Rehabilitation application and submitted that to Manila as well. Their website doesn't provide any information about how long it takes to process a Criminal Rehabilitation application, but CIC's website says it can take up to a year. It seemed we'd be in for a long wait, but my wife was still here and we expected her TRP application would be allowed and we would just wait it out here in Canada.
In late January we received a letter from CIC telling us that her application for a TRP had been refused. Notwithstanding the fact that at the time my wife originally entered Canada we had a CHIR that said she was conviction free, the VO said in the letter that he felt she had misrepresented herself to CBSA upon entering Canada and that he was forwarding a copy of the refusal letter to CBSA for "possible removal proceedings". The letter did not ask her to leave, but since she no longer had any status to remain here and I didn't want to spend the next six months waiting for some CBSA agents to knock on my door, we felt that it would probably be best if she left Canada voluntarily. She has a B1/B2 visa for the US and family in Michigan, so we were going to leave the following week. The day before our planned departure, we got an email from Manila requesting a re-medical. The first available panel physician appointment in this area was Feb. 13. She did her re-med that day and on Feb. 14 I drove her down to Michigan. It was a pretty crappy Valentine's Day.
I had read on CIC's website that last summer CIC began allowing people with single DUI convictions to apply for a TRP at a port of entry. On the way back from Michigan, I decided to see if I they would allow me to go into CIC's office at the Detroit Windsor Tunnel and speak to an immigration officer there about the situation. I was hoping to feel them out as to whether they would be inclined to grant her a TRP there. The CBSA agent at the border allowed me to go into the CIC office at the border crossing and I spoke to an officer there. I explained our situation, gave him my wife's UCI number and he punched her file up on the computer. He told me to go have a seat while he reviewed it all.
Ten minutes later he called me back up and said that he was having some difficulty understanding why she had been denied a TRP, but the fact was, she had been refused and not much could be done about it now. He said that her best strategy would be to submit an application for Criminal Rehabilitation at Detroit/Windsor. I told him that I had no idea that it was even possible to submit one at a port of entry and had just submitted one to Manila, to which he responded "Jeez, you'll be waiting a while on that". He said that Criminal Rehabilitation applications could be submitted in person by an applicant at a point of entry and that they typically processed them at Detroit/Windsor in 4-6 weeks, often quicker. Once processed, she would be able to re-enter Canada as a visitor and the impediment holding up her PR application would be removed. He also said that, although there were no guarantees, once the Criminal Rehabilitation application was submitted, they could also reconsider her TRP application because she had now taken additional steps to resolve her criminality issue. I left there feeling pretty good about the chances of getting my wife back into Canada sooner than later.
I started gathering the documents for the second Criminal Rehabilitation application the next day. I finally got it all together and last Monday I picked up my wife in Michigan and took her to CIC's office at the tunnel. Incredibly, I got the exact same officer I had spoken to on Feb. 14th. He didn't remember me. I submitted the application for Criminal Rehabilitation and told him that we would also like to request a TRP. Again, he told us to go have a seat. He started going over the application, making a bunch of notes and then disappeared into a back room for five minutes. About twenty minutes later he called me back up to the desk and said he would not give her a TRP. I asked him why, and he said that she had recently been refused a TRP and he was not going to overturn another VO's ruling. I reminded him that he had told me the month before that the submission of the Criminal Rehabilitation application would change things and allow them to reconsider on the TRP. He wouldn't budge, I was getting pretty pissed and pressed the point further. He told me not to be too concerned about the TRP because he had done this; he had reviewed her application for Criminal Rehabilitation on the spot and recommended it be approved. He had taken the application to the director of his office, explained our situation and asked that they expedite the processing of it. He assured us that my wife would receive a phone call, probably before the end of the week asking her to come back for an interview. If the interview went well, he said the Criminal Rehabilitation certificate would probably be issued on the spot, she would be given a visitor's record and could come back home with me. He said he was confident she would be back in Canada by the end of this week or early next week. He gave me a phone number I could call at their office to get updates on the situation.
My wife was in tears, having expected to be able to return with me that day, however I was hopeful that we would be able to get her back in the following week. It's now Thursday and we haven't heard a word from Detroit/Windsor.
There is an interesting footnote to this story. As we were leaving CIC the officer gave me a form that he said we would need to show the US border guys when we re-entered the US. It just stated that my wife had not actually entered Canada and had only come to CIC for a meeting. There was a box on the form that said "Purpose of Meeting" and the CIC officer had written "Submit Crim Rehab App".
At the US border I handed our passports and the CIC document to the border guard. He looked at my wife's passport and then the CIC paper. He asked "What does this mean 'Crim Rehab App'?". I told him that she had an old DUI conviction in South Korea, was therefore inadmissible to Canada and had been at immigration to file an application which would allow her to enter the country. He looked incredulous and said "One DUI and she can't enter Canada?". I told him that was the law in Canada. He was looking a little skeptical. He then looked at my passport and said "Well. Who are you?" I told him I was her husband. He was now looking even more skeptical and asked "I don't understand. Where do you live?". I told him I lived in Canada and there then ensued this very long intense staring contest between us. It was pretty clear from the look on his face that he wasn't believing this story and suspected her conviction was for something more serious. Following the staring contest that seemed to last an eternity, he then said "You mean to tell me, that you're a Canadian citizen, living in Canada and your wife can't come live with you because of one old DUI conviction". I told him that was correct. More staring. Finally he says "You've got to be kidding me". I assured him that I wasn't. More staring. He then shook his head in disbelief, handed me back our passports, said "You folks have a nice day" and sent us on our way.
I was pretty worried there for a minute. I wasn't sure what would happen if he didn't allow us back into the states. It's not like we could turn around and go back to Canada. I guess we would have ended up like Tom Hanks in that movie "The Terminal". Stuck between two countries with nowhere to go.
Anyway, hopefully things get straightened around for my wife soon. I'll keep you all posted.
