March 21, 2018

This Week’s Success Story: Stay of Removal Order Granted to Family of Five

We have recently succeeded at the Federal Court with a stay of removal that was granted for a family of five. This family lived in Canada without legal status for almost a decade, having been unsuccessful at all their previous attempts to regularize their immigration status. After they retained our firm for assistance, we submitted an application for permanent residence based on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds, which is currently in process. Unfortunately, this application does not confer status to the applicants, and as such, the family has been scheduled for removal. Having learned about the removal date, our office submitted an urgent request to defer removal, which was refused by the CBSA.

In order to stop the immediate removal of the family from Canada, our office brought an urgent stay of removal motion to the Federal Court. During the hearing, the Federal Court judge accepted our arguments that the deferral officer mischaracterized the evidence and arguments in the deferral request and failed to consider the short-term interests of the children, even though was required to do so. Consequently, the judge granted the stay of removal order for the whole family, noting that such stay would be in the best interests of children, two of whom left their country of nationality at a very young age, and the third is a citizen of Canada.