‘Procedural fairness letter’: Canada cracks down on immigration applicants over spouses

Ottawa is cracking down on skilled immigration applicants who manipulate the point system to boost their ranking scores for a spot in the increasingly competitive permanent resident draws.

 

Since 2015, the Immigration Department has used the current system to score and rank skilled immigration candidates based on their age, education, language proficiency, work experience and adaptability. Periodic draws are conducted and candidates with the highest scores in the pool are invited to apply.

 

There are two scoring grids: for candidates who are single, and for those who have spouses and get points for the partner’s qualifying attributes. To balance out this potential advantage for married candidates, singles can earn more points for the same attributes (education, language proficiency, etc.). The potential maximum is 600 points, whether married or single.

 

However, married candidates have the option to exclude their spouses in the application and be assessed as if they were single, and benefit from the additional points as an individual applicant. It could bump up their score by up to 40 points and make a difference in the current immigration landscape.

 

Due to the influx of study and work permit holders after the pandemic ended in 2022, the pool of candidates in the system has grown, and new priorities arose for applicants in occupations experiencing skill shortages to bypass the score ranking system.

That has resulted in higher passing scores and more competition for those who aren’t in a prioritized occupation in areas such as health care, education, STEM and skilled trades.

 

To outscore others, married applicants have increasingly excluded their spouses in applications and opted to sponsor them later, after they themselves secure permanent residence.

 

Immigration officials have taken notice, especially after the Liberal government in October set the ambitious targets to reduce the permanent resident levels by 20 per cent to 395,000 in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.

 

Over the last few months, immigration officials have sent out what’s known as a “procedural fairness letter” — a formal communication the department uses to raise concerns about an application that could lead to a refusal — to some married applicants for explanation on why they declared to be assessed as singles when their spouse is also in Canada with them.

 

In at least one case, a married applicant has had the confirmation of permanent residence cancelled by an officer for using this method to boost his points.

 

“This approach contradicts the definition of non-accompanying family members and does not reflect your current circumstances,” the refusal letter said.

 

“You and your dependent spouse are married, live together, and reside at the same address … I have found that you no longer possess the points for which you were ranked.”

 

Immigration consultant Kubeir Kamal said married applicants have “historically” submitted applications with “non-accompanying” spouses to gain this advantage.

 

“It has been happening for quite some time but it has now become more mainstream because people are frustrated,” said Kamal, who has had 15 cases in the last two months challenged by immigration officials over the applicants’ non-accompanying spouse declaration.

 

“Can you blame people for doing it? It doesn’t say in the immigration law that you can’t do this. And people are very clearly stating it in their applications: why my spouse is not accompanying is I want to increase my points.”

 

The immigration law has provisions to offer the options because some spouses don’t want to be included for legitimate reasons. They may have their own career aspirations abroad or need to care for family back home for an indefinite period of time, and risk failing to fulfil the physical residence requirement to maintain their permanent resident status.

 

“Misrepresentation means you are trying to mislead the officer so that the officer can induce an error in their decision,” said Kamal. “But you are not doing that. You are telling the officer the reason.”

 

The Immigration Department said it is committed to upholding the integrity of the system against fraud and misrepresentation.

 

“Misrepresentation includes providing false information or withholding information directly related to decisions made under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,” it said in a statement to the Star.

 

“If a spouse is declared as not accompanying while the intent is for the spouse to come with the principal applicant, an officer may find that the applicant misrepresented themselves to get more points.”

 

Mandeep Lidher, a Calgary-based immigration consultant, said there’s nothing unlawful about the practice, saying this is a matter of personal choice permitted in the law as long as reasons are provided.

“Some of the refusals are going to get challenged in the Federal Court,” said Lidher, who has had two clients flagged by immigration officials in recent months. “If you’re not hiding anything, you’re not lying.”

 

Immigration lawyer Matthew Jeffery said a married applicant could be better off applying on their own if their spouse’s education and language ability don’t earn them extra points as a couple.

 

“There’s nothing illegal about that,” he said. “That’s not a misrepresentation.”

 

However, he said the Immigration Department would have a legitimate argument to challenge an applicant for non-compliance with the law, based on the fact that the person should not be entitled to those extra points for single and non-accompanied applicants.

 

He said an in-Canada married applicant should not declare as unaccompanied if their spouse is also in the country, risking a refusal based on misrepresentation that could lead to a five-year ban from applying for immigration to Canada.

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star