Procedural Fairness

Responding to Fairness Procedural Letter from IRCC

A procedural fairness letter is an email or letter electronically sent by an immigration officer. The officer sends this letter to give the applicant an opportunity to respond to concerns about their documents or application.

The Procedural Fairness Process allows an applicant a fair opportunity to respond to the IRCC concerns prior to a negative decision being made on his/her application.
If you received a Procedural Fairness Letter from the IRCC, it is important to submit a detailed response with strong actual arguments, within a specific amount of time. It is recommended to retain a professional to prepare a strong and sufficient response. Our team here at Dejamy Immigration Inc. can help you at this point.

It is your chance to respond and clarify your position before the visa officer refuses your application and may ban you from applying for any type of Canadian visa for 5 years in the case of misrepresentation
A Procedural Fairness Letter is commonly issued for the following reasons;
  • Genuineness of the relationship subsection 12(1) and subsection 4(1)
  • Medical Inadmissibility subsection 38(1)
  • Misrepresentation subsection 40(1)
  • Criminal Inadmissibility subsection 36(1) and subsection 36(2)
  • Security Reasons subsection 34(1)
If an applicant has a previous criminal issue from Canada or another country, they can be found Criminally Inadmissible to Canada which can prevent them (and another family member in the application) from obtaining Permanent Residence status, or a Temporary Resident Visa and the application will be refused.

We here at Dejamy Immigration Inc. have extensive experience helping individuals with difficult cases such as Procedural Fairness Letters, Refused applications, and IAD appeals.

In some cases, the authorities might consider refusing the application without a hearing. In this scenario, the officers would need to give the applicant sufficient time for responding and presenting additional information or evidence. Hence, when the officers find that applicants do not appear to meet the renunciation requirements, they would need to give the applicant ample opportunity for responding before the authorities render the final decision.

It is worth highlighting that the letters that citizenship officers typically send would need to:

  • Identify the officer’s concerns and,
  • Provide the applicant with ample opportunity for submitting information that proves that they meet the prescribed renunciation requirements
Typical examples of additional information that the applicants could consider providing include:
  • Information that indicates that the applicant is a citizen of a country other than Canada
  • Information that indicates that the applicant will become a citizen of a country other than Canada
  • Information that indicates that the applicant is residing outside Canada
  • Information that supports a request for a waiver and,
  • Information that indicates that the applicant does not have a mental disability which prevents the applicant from understanding the significance of renouncing citizenship
On receiving the submissions from the applicants, the officers would need to review these submissions. Thereafter, the officers would need to render their final decisions. Some submissions might concern applicants who do not meet the requirements specified in paragraphs 9 (1) (d) or (e). In this scenario, the officers would need to send the entire file to the Case Management Branch (CMB) for assessing the waiver and rendering the final decision on the application. For more details on this, the officers would need to refer to the section titled ‘Waivers for Renunciation of Citizenship Under Section 9’ given on the website of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

Note:

  • Citizenship officers would need to bring the files forward for enabling staff to receive the correspondence and match it to the file accordingly
  • This would ensure that the applicants have ample opportunities for responding

The Hearings

The Minister has the authority to require applicants to provide any additional information or evidence relevant to their applications. In addition, the Minister can specify the date by which the applicant needs to submit these documents. This is in accordance with the provisions specified in section 23.1 of the Citizenship Act, which the authorities amended via the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act in 2014.

As a result, the Minister could require applicants to appear in person or by any means of telecommunication for the Minister to examine them. For this, the Minister would typically specify the time and the place – or the time and the means – for the appearance.

Officers would need to consider whether procedural fairness considerations justify a hearing. This is especially so when they are determining whether or not a hearing is required. In particular, they would do this when they are acting as the delegates of the Minister. For more details on this, officers would need to refer to the section titled ‘Interviewing Applicants’ given on the website of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

The Process for Contacting the Applicant to Appear for a Telephone Hearing
In most cases, the renunciation process does not require a hearing. As such, officers could complete the process entirely via mail. However, in some cases, the citizenship officers might request applicants for attending a hearing. This is especially so when they assess applications made under the provisions specified in subsection 9 (1).

In case the applicant resides in Canada

  • The officer would need to make arrangements with officers at the nearest local office for a hearing
  • Thereafter, they would need to send a notice to the applicant to appear in person at the nearest local office for a telephonic hearing
  • Officers of the local office would need to verify the applicant’s identity and provide a room for the hearing

In case the applicant resides outside of Canada

  • The officers would need to make arrangements with consular officers for conducting hearings at the nearest consular missions
  • Thereafter, they would need to send a notice to the applicant to appear in person at the nearest consular mission for a telephonic hearing
  • Officers of the consular office would need to verify the applicant’s identity and provide a room for the hearing

Note

  • Officers will need to arrange for in-person hearings if they deem it necessary