July 15, 2020

This Week’s Success Story: Another Federal Court Success!

A client came to our office after receiving a refusal on an application for criminal rehabilitation, which resulted in the refusal of her application for Permanent Residence under the Spousal In-Canada class. The client had one conviction overseas, completed the associated sentence, and despite ample evidence of rehabilitation, the application for criminal rehabilitation was refused. Because of this, she was still considered to be criminally inadmissible and thus her application for Permanent Residence was refused. What the client was unaware of was that her subsequently submitted application for a Temporary Resident Permit (“TRP”), that could have allowed her to remain in Canada in the event that her Permanent Residence were to be refused, was also refused though IRCC did not communicate the decision to her.

We challenged both decisions at the Federal Court. Thankfully, IRCC agreed to re-open the TRP application without a fight. The refusal of her application for criminal rehabilitation proceeded to a hearing at the Federal Court. At the hearing, we argued that the most important consideration in an application for criminal rehabilitation, the likelihood of the applicant re-offending, was not considered whatsoever in the refusal decision, rendering it unreasonable. Thankfully, the Court agreed with our position and allowed the Judicial Review, sending our client’s application for criminal rehabilitation a different IRCC Officer for a redetermination!