Girl struggling with removing from Canada above bogus letter loses judicial assessment

An Edmonton girl experiencing removal from Canada has misplaced a judicial review of the federal government’s conclusion, leaving her with a person final authorized selection to go after.

Karamjeet Kaur, 25, has been preventing an Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada selection to have her removed from Canada in excess of a faux letter of admission to an Ontario higher education provided as portion of her 2018 university student visa application.

Canadian officers settle for that Kaur failed to know the letter – which was submitted by an immigration agent who now faces felony expenses in India – was faux.

But the immigration board insists it was Kaur’s obligation to have checked with the college to assure her admission was true.

Kaur sought a judicial overview of that conclusion, but that was dismissed in January by Federal Court docket Justice Ann Marie McDonald, who located that the immigration board’s choice was realistic.

“The applicant put her have faith in in an immigration guide and was deceived. On the other hand, these situation do not absolve the applicant from the repercussions of her misrepresentation,” McDonald stated in a created selection.

McDonald’s acquiring has remaining Kaur loaded with anxiousness about her foreseeable future.

“Most people from the government, like they are seeing me as a legal, but I am not for the reason that I believe I’m the sufferer of this circumstance,”  Kaur claimed in an job interview this month.

As a final ditch energy, Kaur has submitted an software for humanitarian and compassionate thought, which is out there in extraordinary conditions to individuals who do not qualify below other grounds.

“I imagine this is the only hope that I have now,” she said. 

Section of the rationale Kaur’s family sent her to Canada for school is since of a actual physical disability that boundaries her motion and created her the concentrate on of discrimination and harassment in her dwelling neighborhood in Punjab in northern India. 

Kaur’s spouse and children are small earnings and do not have access to pcs or any familiarity with the immigration procedure, and so employed an immigration agent to assistance with Kaur’s visa software. 

The agent designed an application – that provided the bogus university admission letter – that was signed by Kaur’s male cousin. She in no way signed it herself.

Canadian officers initially approved the admission letter and issued the college student visa. Just after Kaur arrived in Ontario in April 2018, the agent informed her the spot in the Ontario faculty had fallen through.

She designed her way to Edmonton, enrolled in Norquest Faculty on her individual, and finished a business administration diploma. She then obtained a get the job done permit and a retail task where she has now labored for four many years.

It was not till she used for long term residency in 2020 that officials decided the letter for the school was phony, and she missing her January 2022 bid to continue to be.

In December 2022, Kaur’s law firm appeared ahead of McDonald, producing quite a few arguments to have Kaur’s situation reconsidered, but the choose turned down all of them. 

‘No space for discretion’

“The way Canadian law is drafted and the way it is utilized – that leaves no area for discretion,” explained Kaur’s attorney Manraj Sidhu. 

“They do not glimpse at the intent of a particular person performing an motion.” 

Sidhu mentioned McDonald’s decision does not shock him her results align with precedents in these types of cases.

In her final decision, the judge prices from a 2021 final decision about misrepresentation created by someone other than the applicant, noting that though it may well appear to be rigid, the integrity of the immigration system relies on an applicant making sure they have delivered truthful details. 

McDonald also questioned Kaur’s portrayal of herself as susceptible and lacking methods – particularly noting that Kaur has a computer sciences diploma from her time in India.

But Kaur and her lawyer say it was the immigration agent who submitted that Kaur experienced studied computer system sciences, when in simple fact she analyzed for a bachelor of science at a completely various college than the just one the agent stated.

Sidhu additional that even while Kaur attended post-secondary scientific tests in India, that would not signify she experienced all set access to computer systems or telephones to get in touch with the higher education.

He believes Canada’s immigration process does not adequately look at the realities of what existence is like for individuals in Kaur’s situation.

“Dwelling in India, when you are residing shut to the poverty line, you do not have this luxury of getting international phone calls facility in your phone,” Sidhu explained.

“Everything is posted in the letter of acceptance and it is addressed as a 1 way ticket to the school. And there is never a question about the veracity or authenticity of that document.”

Sidhu is also worried about his client’s security if she had been needed to return to India.

When the false letter was uncovered, Kaur’s household filed a report with law enforcement in Punjab, and the agent was arrested and charged. While out on bail he disappeared, and Kaur and her family have received threats that she would be harmed if she returns and testifies from him.

Federal Tourism Minister and Edmonton-Centre MP Randy Boissonnault has created a letter to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in help of Kaur’s permanent residency application on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Sidhu said it is very likely that they will listen to back about the compassionate and humanitarian leave application in the upcoming four to 5 months.

Kaur said that considering that likely community with her tale in 2022, she’s been overwhelmed by aid from good friends, colleagues and the broader local community. 

“I have a great deal of buddies and I have guidance in this complicated time. Most people [is] attempting to help me. I am hoping I will be Ok,” she reported.