UNDECLARED CHILD, WHAT TO DO

[mrs.arc]

My friend’s husband landed as an immigrant last June 2014 under family class sponsorship.
He was only 19 when he arrives.

The situation is, they have UNDECLARED CHILD (the kid is 2 yrs old now) and they're not yet married because they were minors by that time.
Also, they are not aware that it is important to declare their child, and her mother in law (the principal applicant) said that they don’t have to declare the child. Since they know nothing about the application process, they do what the mom says.

Now, his husband lives independently, his mom doesn’t care at all. And he's so bothered when he read to cic site that declaring their child is important.

Last September his husband took a vacation here in the Philippines to get married and have legal papers (marriage contract). He returned to Canada last Monday.

The question is:
1. What is the first thing to do?
2. Where to declare his change of status?
3. What to do about their undeclared child?

All inputs are very much appreciated. Thank you

 

[scylla]

He can sponsor his wife (provided they were not common law before he landed in Canada) - however he can never sponsor the child. He's facing a very difficult situation for which there is no solution.

 

[SamHom]

Nice mother/mother in law..."let's just say something that I'm not even 100% sure about, not that important anyway". Some people...

I don't know, maybe humanitarian reasons could be a possibility to have the child sponsored?

Could the mother get in trouble for not declaring the child, or just the husband?

 

[keesio]

Nice mother/mother in law..."let's just say something that I'm not even 100% sure about, not that important anyway". Some people...

I suspect that she may have been pretty aware of the rules but doesn't want her son to have anything to do with her now daughter-in-law and child.

 

[Ponga]

Nice mother/mother in law..."let's just say something that I'm not even 100% sure about, not that important anyway". Some people...

I don't know, maybe humanitarian reasons could be a possibility to have the child sponsored?

Could the mother get in trouble for not declaring the child, or just the husband?

Unfortunately, for the child, CIC will not accept HC reasons to override their mistake to have not included the child.

 

[rose68]

My friend’s husband landed as an immigrant last June 2014 under family class sponsorship.
He was only 19 when he arrives.

The situation is, they have UNDECLARED CHILD (the kid is 2 yrs old now) and they're not yet married because they were minors by that time.
Also, they are not aware that it is important to declare their child, and her mother in law (the principal applicant) said that they don’t have to declare the child. Since they know nothing about the application process, they do what the mom says.

Now, his husband lives independently, his mom doesn’t care at all. And he's so bothered when he read to cic site that declaring their child is important.

Last September his husband took a vacation here in the Philippines to get married and have legal papers (marriage contract). He returned to Canada last Monday.

The question is:
1. What is the first thing to do?
2. Where to declare his change of status?
3. What to do about their undeclared child?

All inputs are very much appreciated. Thank you

As per my knowledge,U should marry and then sponsor to he/she with child.U take legal advice by good standing lawyer not consultant.

 

[Davidaxel]

He can sponsor his wife (provided they were not common law before he landed in Canada) - however he can never sponsor the child. He's facing a very difficult situation for which there is no solution.

Hello,
Yes i agree it's very difficult situation.
I'll search for this and i will give you good solution.

 

[Ponga]

Hello,
Yes i agree it's very difficult situation.
I'll search for this and i will give you good solution.

Not much to search for; the damage has been done.

The only possible solution, which really hasn't been tested AFAIK, would be for him to renounce his PR and start over. He would need to find a way to apply for PR again and this time include the child and spouse in his application. Having said that, there's been no evidence [here] that this option would even work.

 

[Rob_TO]

As per my knowledge,U should marry and then sponsor to he/she with child.U take legal advice by good standing lawyer not consultant.

No this is wrong. It doesn't matter if they are married or not, the child was not declared to they are not recognized under any family class application.

Be very cautious when dealing with lawyers about this matter as many will be happy to take your money and go to court for you, all the while knowing you have no chance of winning.

The only possible solution, which really hasn't been tested AFAIK, would be for him to renounce his PR and start over. He would need to find a way to apply for PR again and this time include the child and spouse in his application. Having said that, there's been no evidence [here] that this option would even work.

All the evidence you need is in the regulations. The non-declaration rule is only applicable to family class applications, not to a new application under some other stream.

So renouncing PR and then applying again would indeed work, however he would most likely need to leave Canada and then see if they even qualify for PR under one of the non-family-class immigration streams.

 

[SamHom]

No this is wrong. It doesn't matter if they are married or not, the child was not declared to they are not recognized under any family class application.

Be very cautious when dealing with lawyers about this matter as many will be happy to take your money and go to court for you, all the while knowing you have no chance of winning.

All the evidence you need is in the regulations. The non-declaration rule is only applicable to family class applications, not to a new application under some other stream.

So renouncing PR and then applying again would indeed work, however he would most likely need to leave Canada and then see if they even qualify for PR under one of the non-family-class immigration streams.

The problem is, would CIC accept someone that they can see did misrepresentation in the past? Either way, it's a long, hard process.

 

[Rob_TO]

The problem is, would CIC accept someone that they can see did misrepresentation in the past?

Yes they would. Many people have done misrepresentation for minor things on various visa applications, and still been approved for PR at later dates. There is a huge difference between willful misrepresentation (such as forging documents), and accidental misrepresentation when someone didn't understand the rules. As long as they are open and don't try to hide it, there shouldn't be an issue.
The much bigger concern would be giving up your life in Canada and hoping you qualify to apply for PR again in a non-family-class stream.

 

[ifeedly]

what was the age of the father of the kid when they applied and signed??
this is a case of willful misrepresentation by principal applicant and the father of the kid as the age at landing was 19 which is actually a year past the age of majority.
he was advised that the kid does not need to be declared and he agreed and still agreed even after he reached the age of majority.
A lawyer would be able to represent the kid but the case is against the father of the kid and principal applicant so their PR is in range of being revoked.

follow the law and do the right stuff.

 

[Rob_TO]

what was the age of the father of the kid when they applied and signed??
this is a case of willful misrepresentation by principal applicant and the father of the kid as the age at landing was 19 which is actually a year past the age of majority.
he was advised that the kid does not need to be declared and he agreed and still agreed even after he reached the age of majority.
A lawyer would be able to represent the kid but the case is against the father of the kid and principal applicant so their PR is in range of being revoked.

follow the law and do the right stuff.

No this is wrong information. The age of the father is completely irrelevant in this case, since a dependent's age is locked in at the time the application is received by CIC, regardless of how old they are when they land. Him being 19 at landing is meaningless to CIC. Whether he had a child or not, would have no effect on his own PR application or eligibility at the time, other than requiring the child to pass a medical. The only thing that could have caused him to no longer be a dependent is if he was married or common-law before landing.

Many people have not declared dependents/spouses, and CIC rarely if ever actually moves to revoke their PR status. They view the result of never being able to sponsor that person under family class, as punishment enough.

Also a lawyer can do practically nothing in this case as the kid has practically no chance to be sponsored here or qualify under H&C. CIC will expect the parents to move out of Canada if they wish to live with their child. The vast majority of cases in court records of people being successful in appeals of non-declared children, are when the parents did not realize this child existed at the time and only found out after becoming PR (such as a father becoming PR but having no idea they had fathered a child with some former partner).

 

[ifeedly]

In a situation like this the person affected needs legal advice, not what we can provide. This forum is "people helping people" with what experience we have gained and that does not makes us experts at law. Most of the good lawyers will offer free consultation for first meeting in Canada. The guy is already in Canada and can definitely take help from the government sponsored legal Aid system where the client does not pay anything if the income issues are present or pays salary linked amount or pays a minimal amount.

This guy is already willing to sacrifice everything, he definitely deserves access to all avenues of help including legal representation.

 

[Rob_TO]

In a situation like this the person affected needs legal advice, not what we can provide. This forum is "people helping people" with what experience we have gained and that does not makes us experts at law. Most of the good lawyers will offer free consultation for first meeting in Canada. The guy is already in Canada and can definitely take help from the government sponsored legal Aid system where the client does not pay anything if the income issues are present or pays salary linked amount or pays a minimal amount.

This guy is already willing to sacrifice everything, he definitely deserves access to all avenues of help including legal representation.

There are plenty of immigration lawyers out there that will promise you all will be fine if you use them and they can win against CIC, and will be happy to take your money and spend years in court for you. However in the end many lawyers won't care if you lose or not as they still get paid either way. There are countless stories on this website of people who have used immigration lawyers and been completely screwed over by them. So the advice "go get a lawyer" is certainly valid, but needs to be given with some caution. OP should understand the scenario he's in and what the most likely outcome is based on hundreds of cases with judge's decisions on record which have already set precedent before him. This way he will be able to detect if a lawyer is not being entirely truthful with him or simply doesn't know what they are taking about (which is all too common).