Study permit refusal for minor

[Boiali]

Dear all,

hoping for some help. I live in Canada and have PR.
The high court in Botswana granted me legal guardianship for my niece so I applied for study permit so that she can join me here. She’s 16. I got a letter from school.
The refusal says:
1. Her immigration status in the country that is not her country of origin- not sure what this means as she’s never lived anywhere else other than her country of citizenship.
(but she had to travel to South Africa for her biometric as that is the nearest office).
2. Insufficient funds- I provided the guardianship letterfrom the court and another to state I will be financing her studies. I also provided our savings which were over $700K. So I don’t understand this either.
A. What are my options?
B. Is there an appeal of some sort?
C. If I have to reapply how can I strengthen the application?
D. The application took 4 months….any way of speeding things in case I have to go down that road again?

 

[Naturgrl]

Dear all,

hoping for some help. I live in Canada and have PR.
The high court in Botswana granted me legal guardianship for my niece so I applied for study permit so that she can join me here. She’s 16. I got a letter from school.
The refusal says:
1. Her immigration status in the country that is not her country of origin- not sure what this means as she’s never lived anywhere else other than her country of citizenship.
(but she had to travel to South Africa for her biometric as that is the nearest office).
2. Insufficient funds- I provided the guardianship letterfrom the court and another to state I will be financing her studies. I also provided our savings which were over $700K. So I don’t understand this either.
A. What are my options?
B. Is there an appeal of some sort?
C. If I have to reapply how can I strengthen the application?
D. The application took 4 months….any way of speeding things in case I have to go down that road again?

Order GCMS notes.

1. Your niece is an orphan? If not, having legal guardianship doesn’t mean much to Canadian immigration. You can make decisions on behalf of the child and provide food, clothing etc. but it doesn’t mean she can come to Canada. This may be what they are referring to immigration status. Having guardianship may not allow her to leave the country depending on that country’s laws. It is guardianship based on Botswana law, not Canada.

2. How much did you show in cash in the bank? For high school, you need to show funds for international tuition plus living expenses. So you showed $700k in cash. Did you show school enrolment with tuition paid? Again where are her parents? How long have you had guardianship and spent time with you personally? IRCC may view guardianship as temporary so want parents to fund her education, and not have her leave the country.

A. Why not wait for post secondary and she can come study for college/university. Then she is no longer a minor. If she is 16, she has two years of high school left and then will go on to post secondary.
B. You can apply through Federal Cours for Judicial Review. If positive, the application is reviewed by another officer and can still be refused. Again GCMS may explain reasons for refusal and whether to go the JR route. Think much of this revolves around the custodian agreement and parental role.
C. Consider waiting until post secondary. It is December so with current processing times she will mis this school year and be in her final year of school.
D. No. Get admissions for next school year and pay tuition.

 

[Boiali]

Thanks for the reply. I just wanted to give an update and it might help someone.
A lawyer friend gave me IRCC number to call. The agent I talked to was very helpful and polite. She sent me a link to directly contact the visa office dealing with the application.

Dec 9- sent a message, explained she has never lived anywhere but country of nationality. And explained as she is a minor I will be sponsoring her and pointed out that I had provided my financial information with the application with a covering letter. Infact at this stage since it took 5 months we had increased our GIC balance to over $850K- I let them know of this.
Dec 10: application changed from refused to processing.
Dec 11: application approved
Dec 30 : She arrived in Canada.

so a very happy ending. I am guessing they made a mistake in the original decision which they gladly corrected. I suppose this shows there’s another option for reconsideration which I didn’t know about.

Ps, I didn’t want her to wait to finish high school as Canada immigration is changing so much, I wanted her to be in the system now.

 

[canuck78]

Thanks for the reply. I just wanted to give an update and it might help someone.
A lawyer friend gave me IRCC number to call. The agent I talked to was very helpful and polite. She sent me a link to directly contact the visa office dealing with the application.

Dec 9- sent a message, explained she has never lived anywhere but country of nationality. And explained as she is a minor I will be sponsoring her and pointed out that I had provided my financial information with the application with a covering letter. Infact at this stage since it took 5 months we had increased our GIC balance to over $850K- I let them know of this.
Dec 10: application changed from refused to processing.
Dec 11: application approved
Dec 30 : She arrived in Canada.

so a very happy ending. I am guessing they made a mistake in the original decision which they gladly corrected. I suppose this shows there’s another option for reconsideration which I didn’t know about.

Ps, I didn’t want her to wait to finish high school as Canada immigration is changing so much, I wanted her to be in the system now.

You got incredibly lucky. Applying for a study permit when you are he guardian means she has minimal ties to her home country which would typically mean her application would be refused out of concern she will not return home after her studies. She may face significant challenges extending her study permit if she has minimal ties to her home country. If she is an orphan sponsoring her would be the better option.

 

[kindesswillovercome2]

Thanks for the reply. I just wanted to give an update and it might help someone.
A lawyer friend gave me IRCC number to call. The agent I talked to was very helpful and polite. She sent me a link to directly contact the visa office dealing with the application.

Dec 9- sent a message, explained she has never lived anywhere but country of nationality. And explained as she is a minor I will be sponsoring her and pointed out that I had provided my financial information with the application with a covering letter. Infact at this stage since it took 5 months we had increased our GIC balance to over $850K- I let them know of this.
Dec 10: application changed from refused to processing.
Dec 11: application approved
Dec 30 : She arrived in Canada.

so a very happy ending. I am guessing they made a mistake in the original decision which they gladly corrected. I suppose this shows there’s another option for reconsideration which I didn’t know about.

Ps, I didn’t want her to wait to finish high school as Canada immigration is changing so much, I wanted her to be in the system now.

Hello, can you share the number of the IRCC that helped you finding the contacts of visa office.

 

[Boiali]

Hello, can you share the number of the IRCC that helped you finding the contacts of visa office.

hi,
Here’s the number: 1-888-242-2100. Hope it helps.

 

[Boiali]

You got incredibly lucky. Applying for a study permit when you are he guardian means she has minimal ties to her home country which would typically mean her application would be refused out of concern she will not return home after her studies. She may face significant challenges extending her study permit if she has minimal ties to her home country. If she is an orphan sponsoring her would be the better option.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I am sponsoring her- I wrote a covering letter to that effect, though she’s not an orphan.

 

[canuck78]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I am sponsoring her- I wrote a covering letter to that effect, though she’s not an orphan.

Given she is not an orphan sponsorship is not guaranteed and processing times tend to be very long.