Refugee Immigration

A convention refugee is someone who has a founded fear that they will be persecuted because of their race, nationality, religion, membership or political opinion when they travel outside of the country. If you do need protection in Canada then you would need to base this on the fact that you would experience cruel behaviour, treatment or punishment if you went back. It should be noted that most refugees are granted status to live inside Canada if they make a claim with the inland Canada immigration office. Once A CIC professional has decided that you are eligible for protection, the claim is then sent to the IRB where a hearing will then take place. This will include members from the Refugee Division and they will then determine whether or not you are classed as a convention refugee or someone who is need of some protection.

The hearing usually takes place at a legal counsel and if this has been approved, the person who is claiming may apply for a permanent residency in Canada. This usually takes around 18 months to complete. Before the hearing the claimant may be entitled to obtain authorization to work as an employed citizen under the Canadian law, however this is fully dependent on your own personal circumstances. Some individuals may not be eligible to have their claim taken to the IRB so this is certainly something that you need to keep in consideration. There are also a number of factors that may affect whether or not you can make a successful refugee claim, so not everyone is granted this status.

One of the most important things that you need to think about when making a refugee claim is whether or not it is credible. This process begins when the PIF form is completed and this forms the basis of your entire claim. For this reason it is incredibly important that the information detailing the fears present is outlined and presented in an honest and credible way.

The PIF can be completed as a port of entry to Canada but this is not recommended. When making your PIF claim, you need to consider two options. The first option that you need to consider is whether or not you have the intention to make such a claim without first completing the form. If you don’t fill it out, you will need to do so later and you will still be allowed a lawyer. Another thing that you need to think about is that if you don’t do this, you are not confirming that you have any intention to pursue a refugee claim when you enter Canada, so this is only valid afterwards.

If you have never completed a PIF form before then you should know that there are 44 questions in total. These need to be answered and completed in detail. It should also be noted that this needs to be done in chronological order with people, and places being the narrative part of the claim. If needed, you may bring a translator along with you to help you to understand each question but during the hearing, you will be asked to give an oral testimony which will go along with the PIF. During your oral testimony, you will be questioned by the Board members and they will determine how believable your claim is. They will also compare your oral testimony to your PIF documentation to establish truth and credibility. This is where most cases are refused so it is important to take good care during this process and throughout the following stages.

If it is suspected that some of your information is not true or misconstrued, they will most likely ask you about this and you will have plenty of time to counter this argument. In most cases however you won’t experience problems like this if you are honest in your report. You will also find that it may take some time for all of this to fall into place, as mentioned above this can take up to 18 months but it is possible for you to work in Canada while this is in place. If the hearing happens and it turns out that you are not eligible to make a refugee claim then you will either need to apply for a new type of residency or you will need to go back to your home country until something else has been sorted. If your residency does fall through, there are normally plenty of ways in which you can get around this and it is always a good idea to get some helpful advice from a legal professional before making your decision. Contact us today to find out how we can help or to see what we can do for you in terms of advice.