Those who Waiting EXPRESS ENTRY in Six Months and not finalized!!!!
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There is some law with a title like magnus .. or some what similar (i forgot the precise term) but it has been posted about before. I believe one successful case is mentioned by some one on this very thread some months back.hemantanna555 said:
Basically you can file an application to some judge yourself that CIC has held your file indefinitely and judge would likely push CIC. What practically happens is that once you file this scenario and you are a clear cut case, CIC suddenly wakes up and processes your application pretty fast, mostly it is completed before the very first hearing.
The only issue is that eligibility for that law was probably much longer. I guess around 2 years or so of waiting time with CIC. But it is worth knowing it well. May be they cut / review its timeline keeping in view the express entry process being faster.
The process is called Writ of Mandamus. You would most likely need a lawyer in Canada to file this for you, and it would be very hard to find someone willing to do this unless processing time has exceeded two or more years. It's also quite an expensive procedure ($4000 and up). I contacted some lawyers about my case and they told me they cannot be of any help.
chimetex2002
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"Hello out there,
You may know someone going through same situation,so try to help them out with this information please.
Topic: delayed background check / CSIS/Mandamus
Posted: 15 Feb 2010 at 8:29am
I want to share my experience in the hope that it helps others in the same situation.
I applied for federal skilled worker class a few years ago and since I was living in Canada then (on a student visa), I sent my application to Buffalo. My assessment was done within the usual timelines of that time and I received my medical form after a year and a few months. But after I did medical, I didn't hear back from CIC (immigration) anymore. After a few months, I sent them an email and the response was "We have requested background information from other government offices(s). We cannot provide a date when the processing of your application will be complete."
This typically means that your file is sent to CSIS (Canadian security agency) for an in-depth security check. In many cases of in-depth security checks, after several months, the applicant is called in for a (security) interview and if everything goes well, they get their immigration in 3-4 months after the interview. But in my case, after waiting for more than a year and sending several emails, nothing was happening. They neither called me for an interview nor asked me any questions.
I tried to find other ways:
1- I asked my MP (member of parliament) for assistance. They contacted CIC on my behalf, but CIC gave them the same answer. Apparently, MPs can help you when the problem lies within CIC, but if it is a security check, they cannot do anything.
2- I got the CAIPS notes for my file several times. They usually block out everything related to security checks from the CAIPS notes they send you, but I found some evidence that there was a misunderstanding between CSIS and CIC regarding my file (each one was waiting for the other). That could contribute to 2 years of the delay, but even after the misunderstanding was resolved, nothing was happening.
3- I sent a letter to the director of CSIS asking if they are working on my file. By law, they have to answer (I guess within a month). I received a letter in response that confirmed they were working on my case, but they said they couldn't give me a timeline for completion. After a few months, I sent them another letter and explained that I'd lose some important job opportunities if I didn't get my immigration soon and told them that I was ready to attend any interviews, etc and explained that I had never been involved in any criminal, military or political matter. The response was the same as the first response.
4- I talked with a few immigration consultants and an immigration lawyer and they all told me that there was nothing that I could do expect for waiting.
More than 3 years had passed after I did my medicals and still no answer from CIC (except for "we are waiting for background checks"). One day when I was googling to see if someone had the same problem, I found a forum post with a reference to the possibility of taking the case to federal court based on a concept called "writ of mandamus". But the forum post was written by someone who hadn't done this himself, so there were not many details about that.
So I checked the website of the Federal Court of Canada and used their "decisions search" feature to find cases (from the menus, choose “decisions”, and then “search”) on mandamus cases against the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Looking at tens of cases, I figured that I could in fact use mandamus.
Now, if you are a person with a history of involvement in criminal or terrorist acts, then you deserve having a hard time getting a security clearance.
But if you are like me and you know you have done nothing wrong, then you can assume your background check was delayed because of reasons like
- misunderstanding
-your file being lost or assigned to a lazy clerk
-Being born in a country that is considered suspicious
-Name similarity
In that case, keep reading this post.
I literally looked at 20-30 cases. Most of them did have some issues in their past (like membership in terrorist organizations), but a few were just ordinary people. All in all, based on previous rulings of the court, my conclusion was that you can use mandamus if the delay in your immigration file has been "unreasonable". To be regarded as unreasonable, a delay must meet the following three conditions:
(1) the delay in question was longer than the nature of the process required, prima facie;
(2) the applicant and his or her legal counsel were not responsible for the delay;
(3) the authority responsible for the delay did not provide satisfactory justification.
It seems that a period of more than four or five years has been accepted as "the nature of the process required" in previous rulings. There are even previous cases involving permanent residence applications where delays between three and five years were found to be prima facie longer than required (see cases of Platonov, supra, Kalachnikov, supra and Hanano, supra).
You can go to http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/en/index.html and use the keywords "mandamus" and "immigration" and "CSIS" to find similar cases.
Note that in many cases, immigration had claimed that the delay is not their fault because they did their part in a timely manner and it was CSIS that caused the delay. But interestingly, many judges didn't accept that excuse and ruled that the applicant is a client of CIC and not CSIS and it's the duty of CIC to give them a response one way or another and dealing with CSIS is CIC's issue, not that of the client.
So I used the case summaries in the Federal Court website and compiled a list of all lawyers who had a successful mandamus case (note that you need an immigration LAWYER for this and not an immigration consultant). I then tried to find their contact address by googling their name and contacted each of them asking for quotes.
Be careful here! Some lawyers may not know enough about mandamus and they may mislead you by saying that even if your application has been in process for more than 4 years, you cannot use mandamus. Ignore those guys.
Also be careful about the costs. I got quotes ranging from $2000 to $8000. I finally went with a lawyer that had several successful cases and charged me $2000 for a mandamus application. Our agreement was that if the matter was not solved before the court date, I would pay an additional $1000 to him to appear in the court.
So my lawyer filed a claim on my behalf based on the fact that I had been waiting for my immigration for a bit more than 4 years and the fact that I had never been involved in any "bad stuff". My lawyer told me that in most of the cases, the moment you sue immigration, the wheels start to move and CIC tries to finalize your file before they have to appear in court. So most likely, you'll get your immigration before the court date. And that was exactly what happened to me. When you file for mandamus, it may take around 3 months for the court to accept to take your case and set a court date and the court date may be within 3-4 months of that time (so your court date may be 6-7 months after you file your claim).
In my case, right after I filed my claim, immigration contacted me and asked for my updated address. Then, they started to ask for some documents, etc (including renewing my medicals). After the court date was set, they seemed to double the speed! Long story short, I got my immigration visa shortly after the court date was set (i.e., a few months before the court date).
So I strongly recommend this approach to whoever has been waiting for more than 4 years and knows in their heart that they don't have any skeleton in the closet.
Here is some additional info:
1- An immediate concern would be that if you sue immigration, they'd retaliate and reject your immigration application or get you in trouble somehow. Fortunately, it doesn't work that way in Canada. They don't take this personally and they can't reject you without a good reason (at least if you have applied before 2008 when the Immigration Act changed).
2- In what I suggested above, the legal case is between you and CIC. That is, CSIS is not directly a part of the case. Another approach is to make a complaint against CSIS. Once you write a letter to the director of CSIS, if you feel that their answer is not compelling and they are keeping your file without any good reasons, you can submit a complaint to Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) [see the details on the CSIS website]. I didn't try this and honestly I was skeptical about it, but later I heard from a friend of my friend that he went with this option and it worked for him. The advantage is that this is free of charge and you don't need a lawyer (because SIRC is not a court). Note that you may pursue both options (suing immigration and complaining to SIRC) at the same time.
I went through a lot of frustration while I saw that everyone who had applied years after me got their immigration, but my file was stuck and CIC wouldn't help me a bit. I found this information one bit at a time during my years of struggle and I hope that sharing it would help people with the same situation as me."
Culled from previous post on this site
You may know someone going through same situation,so try to help them out with this information please.
Topic: delayed background check / CSIS/Mandamus
Posted: 15 Feb 2010 at 8:29am
I want to share my experience in the hope that it helps others in the same situation.
I applied for federal skilled worker class a few years ago and since I was living in Canada then (on a student visa), I sent my application to Buffalo. My assessment was done within the usual timelines of that time and I received my medical form after a year and a few months. But after I did medical, I didn't hear back from CIC (immigration) anymore. After a few months, I sent them an email and the response was "We have requested background information from other government offices(s). We cannot provide a date when the processing of your application will be complete."
This typically means that your file is sent to CSIS (Canadian security agency) for an in-depth security check. In many cases of in-depth security checks, after several months, the applicant is called in for a (security) interview and if everything goes well, they get their immigration in 3-4 months after the interview. But in my case, after waiting for more than a year and sending several emails, nothing was happening. They neither called me for an interview nor asked me any questions.
I tried to find other ways:
1- I asked my MP (member of parliament) for assistance. They contacted CIC on my behalf, but CIC gave them the same answer. Apparently, MPs can help you when the problem lies within CIC, but if it is a security check, they cannot do anything.
2- I got the CAIPS notes for my file several times. They usually block out everything related to security checks from the CAIPS notes they send you, but I found some evidence that there was a misunderstanding between CSIS and CIC regarding my file (each one was waiting for the other). That could contribute to 2 years of the delay, but even after the misunderstanding was resolved, nothing was happening.
3- I sent a letter to the director of CSIS asking if they are working on my file. By law, they have to answer (I guess within a month). I received a letter in response that confirmed they were working on my case, but they said they couldn't give me a timeline for completion. After a few months, I sent them another letter and explained that I'd lose some important job opportunities if I didn't get my immigration soon and told them that I was ready to attend any interviews, etc and explained that I had never been involved in any criminal, military or political matter. The response was the same as the first response.
4- I talked with a few immigration consultants and an immigration lawyer and they all told me that there was nothing that I could do expect for waiting.
More than 3 years had passed after I did my medicals and still no answer from CIC (except for "we are waiting for background checks"). One day when I was googling to see if someone had the same problem, I found a forum post with a reference to the possibility of taking the case to federal court based on a concept called "writ of mandamus". But the forum post was written by someone who hadn't done this himself, so there were not many details about that.
So I checked the website of the Federal Court of Canada and used their "decisions search" feature to find cases (from the menus, choose “decisions”, and then “search”) on mandamus cases against the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Looking at tens of cases, I figured that I could in fact use mandamus.
Now, if you are a person with a history of involvement in criminal or terrorist acts, then you deserve having a hard time getting a security clearance.
But if you are like me and you know you have done nothing wrong, then you can assume your background check was delayed because of reasons like
- misunderstanding
-your file being lost or assigned to a lazy clerk
-Being born in a country that is considered suspicious
-Name similarity
In that case, keep reading this post.
I literally looked at 20-30 cases. Most of them did have some issues in their past (like membership in terrorist organizations), but a few were just ordinary people. All in all, based on previous rulings of the court, my conclusion was that you can use mandamus if the delay in your immigration file has been "unreasonable". To be regarded as unreasonable, a delay must meet the following three conditions:
(1) the delay in question was longer than the nature of the process required, prima facie;
(2) the applicant and his or her legal counsel were not responsible for the delay;
(3) the authority responsible for the delay did not provide satisfactory justification.
It seems that a period of more than four or five years has been accepted as "the nature of the process required" in previous rulings. There are even previous cases involving permanent residence applications where delays between three and five years were found to be prima facie longer than required (see cases of Platonov, supra, Kalachnikov, supra and Hanano, supra).
You can go to http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/en/index.html and use the keywords "mandamus" and "immigration" and "CSIS" to find similar cases.
Note that in many cases, immigration had claimed that the delay is not their fault because they did their part in a timely manner and it was CSIS that caused the delay. But interestingly, many judges didn't accept that excuse and ruled that the applicant is a client of CIC and not CSIS and it's the duty of CIC to give them a response one way or another and dealing with CSIS is CIC's issue, not that of the client.
So I used the case summaries in the Federal Court website and compiled a list of all lawyers who had a successful mandamus case (note that you need an immigration LAWYER for this and not an immigration consultant). I then tried to find their contact address by googling their name and contacted each of them asking for quotes.
Be careful here! Some lawyers may not know enough about mandamus and they may mislead you by saying that even if your application has been in process for more than 4 years, you cannot use mandamus. Ignore those guys.
Also be careful about the costs. I got quotes ranging from $2000 to $8000. I finally went with a lawyer that had several successful cases and charged me $2000 for a mandamus application. Our agreement was that if the matter was not solved before the court date, I would pay an additional $1000 to him to appear in the court.
So my lawyer filed a claim on my behalf based on the fact that I had been waiting for my immigration for a bit more than 4 years and the fact that I had never been involved in any "bad stuff". My lawyer told me that in most of the cases, the moment you sue immigration, the wheels start to move and CIC tries to finalize your file before they have to appear in court. So most likely, you'll get your immigration before the court date. And that was exactly what happened to me. When you file for mandamus, it may take around 3 months for the court to accept to take your case and set a court date and the court date may be within 3-4 months of that time (so your court date may be 6-7 months after you file your claim).
In my case, right after I filed my claim, immigration contacted me and asked for my updated address. Then, they started to ask for some documents, etc (including renewing my medicals). After the court date was set, they seemed to double the speed! Long story short, I got my immigration visa shortly after the court date was set (i.e., a few months before the court date).
So I strongly recommend this approach to whoever has been waiting for more than 4 years and knows in their heart that they don't have any skeleton in the closet.
Here is some additional info:
1- An immediate concern would be that if you sue immigration, they'd retaliate and reject your immigration application or get you in trouble somehow. Fortunately, it doesn't work that way in Canada. They don't take this personally and they can't reject you without a good reason (at least if you have applied before 2008 when the Immigration Act changed).
2- In what I suggested above, the legal case is between you and CIC. That is, CSIS is not directly a part of the case. Another approach is to make a complaint against CSIS. Once you write a letter to the director of CSIS, if you feel that their answer is not compelling and they are keeping your file without any good reasons, you can submit a complaint to Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) [see the details on the CSIS website]. I didn't try this and honestly I was skeptical about it, but later I heard from a friend of my friend that he went with this option and it worked for him. The advantage is that this is free of charge and you don't need a lawyer (because SIRC is not a court). Note that you may pursue both options (suing immigration and complaining to SIRC) at the same time.
I went through a lot of frustration while I saw that everyone who had applied years after me got their immigration, but my file was stuck and CIC wouldn't help me a bit. I found this information one bit at a time during my years of struggle and I hope that sharing it would help people with the same situation as me."
Culled from previous post on this site
I applied for Case specific enquiry around 20 days ago and got email from CIC stating the following
"We verified the information you provided. Everything appears to be in order with the application. Please rest assured that you will be notified as soon as the case is finalized or if additional information is required."
Not sure if it is a good sign when they say everything appears to be in order with the application :-\
"We verified the information you provided. Everything appears to be in order with the application. Please rest assured that you will be notified as soon as the case is finalized or if additional information is required."
Not sure if it is a good sign when they say everything appears to be in order with the application :-\
timeflying
Star Member
- Oct 24, 2016
- 1
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- SGVO
- NOC Code......
- 2173
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- AOR Received.
- 29-03-2016
- Passport Req..
- 10-04-2017
Mine will expire in a month. Can you please share how far your medical was extended? I mean old and new expiration date.Neo_says said:
Can someone tell me how to contact cic outside canada? Ive been trying by calling 001613444000 but i keep getting 'we are recieving a large number of calls so cant take your call, please try again later'
Is there a different number i can call on?
Thanks
Is there a different number i can call on?
Thanks
timeflying
Star Member
- Oct 24, 2016
- 1
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- SGVO
- NOC Code......
- 2173
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- AOR Received.
- 29-03-2016
- Passport Req..
- 10-04-2017
Hi Neo_saysNeo_says said:
How did CIC notify you not to redo medicals? Did you phone them or have you got a message on your MyCIC about its extension?
Thanks