If there ever was a story that best exemplified LC’s tag line “Immigration is simple. Until it isn’t. This is where we come in” – it would be the story of Amina.
Amina planned to immigrate to Canada as an International student. She completed her studies here, obtained a Post-Graduate Work Permit, found employment and after a year, she applied for Permanent Residence. What Amina did not realize was that to qualify for the Canadian Experience Class she needed to work full time for the whole 12 months in Canada. As many applicants, Amina only looked at her work hours to calculate the 12 months. However, Immigration Canada is very clear taht you need to have the required amount of work hours AND months to qualify under the CEC. As a result, Amina’s PR application was refused. By that time her work permit has about to expire and she was out of options in Canada. Amina applied to extend her status in Canada as a visitor and came to us.
We first did an Immigration Assessment for Amina. She was a very strong applicant, but only if she had a one year of work experience in Canada. We suggested to her to have an employer with an LMIA who could give her a job offer. Since Amina did have an interested employer, she decided to proceed with the LMIA and a Work Permit. But by that time, Amina’s request to extend her status in Canada as a visitor got refused. She was devastated. We recommended to apply to restore her status and made suggestions on how to improve her application for a restoration. Amina went with our assistance, and her status was restored to a Visitor.
In the meantime, we also started helping Amina’s employer with their LMIA. Due to some undisclosed issues, the LMIA was refused. Luckily, we were able to correct the issues with the employer and the second LMIA was approved in record time. Once the LMIA was issued, all Amina needed was to apply for a Work Permit. We helped to prepare this application, and…it was refused. It seemed like a real curse. We requested a copy of the Officer’s notes by filing an application with the Federal Court for Leave and Judicial Review. There were a lot of mistakes in the officer’s decision.
Once you file a court challenge, in some circumstances it might be worth trying to settle the case with the other party – Immigration Canada. The errors in the work permit decision were so blatant that we wrote to the Immigration Canada’s lawyer proposing to settle this matter and to have another officer to review the refused Work Permit application.
So what happend?
The court case was settled. The previously refused work permit was approved just in time for Amina to apply for PR under the TR to PR pathway. Hoping to see her soon landing in Canada as a Permanent Resident.