Federal court | Immigration and Citizenship | Admission | Application for temporary resident or immigrant visa
Foreign national (FN) was citizen of India who was working in Canada as web designer under post-graduate work permit. FN applied for permanent residence under federal skilled worker program on basis that he had qualifying offer of arranged employment. Immigration officer refusing application on basis that FN did not provide qualifying offer of permanent employment. FN brought application for judicial review. Application dismissed. There was no obligation on officer to provide FN with opportunity to address concerns of officer when supporting documents were incomplete, unclear, or insufficient to satisfy officer that FN met all requirements that stemmed from Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations. While duty of procedural fairness required officer to alert FN of any concerns officer might have about credibility, veracity, or authenticity of documents, there was nothing in record suggesting officer had any concerns about genuineness of application. There was distinction between disregarding evidence due to doubts as to its genuineness or reliability and finding evidence was insufficient to prove fact on balance of probabilities. In this matter, officer found documents submitted were insufficient to prove FN had qualifying offer of employment for indeterminate period. Doctrine of legitimate expectations had no application in present case since issue was not incompleteness of application about which FN should have been advised but rather sufficiency of evidence in otherwise complete application.
Singh v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) (2017), 2017 CarswellNat 655, 2017 FC 266, Cecily Y. Strickland J. (F.C.).
