Immigration Hearings and Appeals

Lehal Law is experienced and skilled at immigration hearings and appeals. We provide services at all levels of hearings:

1. Inadmissibility Hearings
2. Immigration Division (ID) hearings
3. Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) hearings
4. Judicial Reviews

1. Inadmissibility Hearings

Several things can make you inadmissible to Canada, including involvement in criminal activity, human rights violations or in organized crime. You can also be inadmissible for security, health or financial reasons.

An immigration officer can decide whether you can enter Canada when you apply for a visa or when you arrive at a port of entry.

Lehal Law represents clients at all levels of appeal, including federal court judicial reviews. The various categories under inadmissibility are:

Criminal Inadmissibility

If you have committed or been convicted of a crime, whether it is minor or serious, you may be criminally inadmissible to Canada. However, depending on the crime you committed, how long ago it occurred and your behaviour since, you may be admissible to Canada if:

• you are able to satisfy an immigration officer that you meet the legal requirement to be deemed rehabilitated;
• you have applied for rehabilitation and were approved;
• you were granted pardon; or
• you have a temporary resident permit.

If you do not fall in the categories above, you may be criminally inadmissible to Canada.

Medical Inadmissibility

You may be inadmissible to Canada on health grounds if you have a health condition that is likely to endanger public health or public safety, or cause excessive demands on health or social services.

There are some groups of permanent resident applicants that are exempt from the excessive demands assessment. These are:

• family class sponsored spouses, common-law partners and dependent children;
• convention refugees or people in similar circumstances; and
• protected persons.

A medical examination is not mandatory for every temporary resident. Lehal Law will be able to inform you if it is necessary for you in your circumstances.

Misrepresentations

If you attempt to misrepresent yourself through false information or you knowingly deny or tamper with information that is relied upon you may be denied a Visa or refused entry to Canada.

Security Violations

The following are security violations that would make you inadmissible to Canada:

• espionage;
• subversion (attempts to overthrow a government);
• violence or terrorism; and
• membership in an organization involved in any of these.

Human Rights Violations

If you were involved in the following human rights violations you would be inadmissible to Canada:

• war crimes;
• crimes against humanity;
• being a senior official in a government engaged in gross human rights violations or subject to international sanctions.

Financial

You may be inadmissible to Canada if you are unable or unwilling to support yourself and your family members.

Immigration Violations

You may be inadmissible to Canada if you are a:

• temporary resident who did not respect the conditions of their stay, for example, you stayed longer than allowed, worked or studied without the proper permits;
• permanent resident who has not lived in Canada for the required amount of time; and
• person who has previously been deported and attempted to re-enter Canada without written authorization.

If you have been issued an inadmissibility report, Lehal Law can assist you in challenging the allegation in the report. Likewise, if you have been found to be inadmissible, Lehal Law can assist you in challenging that finding.

2. Immigration Division (ID) hearings

The Immigration Division conducts admissibility hearings for certain categories of people believed to be inadmissible to, or removable from Canada under the law. The ID also conducts detention reviews of people being detained for immigration violations.

These matters are extremely serious and it is imperative that you have legal representation. At Lehal Law we are experienced in presenting before the ID at both Inadmissibility hearings and Detention Reviews.

The jurisdiction of the ID member is quite restricted and often the decision will have to be appealed to the next level. Accordingly, the record created at the ID is critical in the pursuit of an appeal at the next level.

3. Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) hearings

The Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) hears and decides appeals on immigration matters, such as appeals from:

• Refused sponsorship applications;
• Removal orders; and
• Residency obligations.

Sponsorship application appeals

Typically the appeals involving refusal of a spousal sponsorship application involve a visa being denied on grounds of:

• The relationship being found not to be genuine; and/or
• The relationship being found to be entered into primarily for the purpose of gaining admission to Canada.

At Lehal Law we are experienced in representing clients in spousal sponsorship appeals. Even prior to the IAD hearing we will endeavor to utilize the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) opportunity to try to resolve the matter without a hearing.

Removal orders

Appeals by permanent residents to the IAD usually pertain to removal orders arising from criminal inadmissibility. The appeal to the IAD may be possible on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. However, the eligibility to appeal is dependent on the nature of the criminal inadmissibility; for instance, if it is based on serious criminality or security grounds then there is no access to the IAD.

Residency Obligation

These appeals pertain to a permanent resident status being found to be no longer valid. The consequence of being found to have lost your permanent resident status is serious and Lehal Law can assist in challenging such a finding.

4. Judicial Reviews

Decisions of the immigration officers, boards and divisions can be appealed to Federal Court for judicial review on a number of different grounds. Appeals to Federal Court have strict time lines and are complex. Lehal Law has experience in appealing matters to Federal Court and will assist you through this process. Lehal Law also has experience in obtaining Stay of removals pending a decision of the underlying appeal.