By Sukhram Ramkissoon
In September 2013, a mother who I will call Sharon, age 40 and her dependent son Lloyd, 22, were told their applications for permanent residence based on Spouse or Common-Law Partner in Canada Class were approved.
Their applications were sponsored by Sharon’s spouse Errol, a Canadian citizen, in October 2012. Mother and son are citizens of Jamaica and gave permission to publish their story.
The sponsor died in August 2013 and Sharon informed the CIC. Our office submitted a request for humanitarian and compassionate consideration as their applications could not be further processed under the Family Class due to the sponsor’s death.
Before entering Canada, Sharon legally resided in the U.S., first as a visa worker and then as a Green Card Holder from 2002 until 2008 when they entered Canada as visitors.
She met her Canadian husband in 2009 and after a developing relationship of three years they were happily married in March 2012.
In December 2013 our office made the Humanitarian and Compassionate considerations submission. We noted that Sharon and her son resided with her brother since her husband died and her brother and his family submitted letters of support.
Since coming to Canada she had been working and integrated in the community. They had left Jamaica for over a decade and had no family support there. Her son left Jamaica at age 12 and had not returned since moving to the U.S.
Sharon and her son had not returned to the U.S. since their original entry and so no longer held any permanent resident status in the U.S. due to their long absence.
If removed from Canada they would be forced to return to Jamaica which had no future for them and no prospects of any livelihood.
In February 2014, Sharon was told her application for permanent residence was refused as she did not comply with a CIC request on her spousal application.
However, we pointed out that our client did comply in her submission in early December 2013 which was received by their office in late December 2013. That package included updated application forms for herself and her dependent son, along with other pertinent documents supporting humanitarian and compassionate consideration.
It appears there was no consideration given to the H&C request. In March 2014, our office through Cindy Ramkisson-Shears made representation to the manager, Citizenship and Immigration, Vegreville, and Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, requesting their office reconsider the humanitarian application as it was wrong in law to refuse it before reaching a decision.
By reopening the file, it would alleviate costs to our client as there was proof that our H&C request was received by the CIC before the deadline in December 2014, and thus our client had complied with their request.
On June 3, 2015, a letter was sent to our office by the Backlog Office, Niagara Falls, telling our clients their applications based on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds were approved.
When we told Sharon and her son the good news, they were overjoyed and expressed their desire to continue to be good, productive citizens of this great country.
Good luck!
Sukhram Ramkissoon is a member of ICCRC and specializes in immigration matters at 3089 Bathurst St., Suite 219A, Toronto. Phone 416-789-5756.
