What this branch is for
This is the part of the practice we most want to do, and the reason is simple. Most problems in an immigration history are questions of the right mechanism rather than the end of the road, and the mechanisms are not obvious from the outside.
Disclosure is the mechanism, not the risk
The department requires complete details of all charges, convictions, court dispositions, pardons and court proceedings, together with copies of the applicable sections of the foreign law. That is not a trap. It is the material an officer needs in order to find that you are not inadmissible, or that a cure applies.
Concealment is what converts a manageable problem into an unmanageable one. Misrepresentation carries a five year inadmissibility and, during it, a bar on applying for permanent residence at all. A criminality problem usually has a route through it. A misrepresentation finding on top of it removes most of them for five years.
- A foreign conviction is not a Canadian one. It has to be equated to Canadian law, element by element. Where the foreign provision is broader than the Canadian equivalent, or catches conduct that is not criminal here, there may be no inadmissibility at all. The foreign label matters far less than the Canadian equivalent.
- There are named cures, and some are automatic and free. Deemed rehabilitation needs no application and costs nothing. Individual rehabilitation becomes available five years after the sentence ends. A Canadian conviction is dealt with by a record suspension. A temporary resident permit covers the period before a cure is available.
- Medical inadmissibility is about cost, not diagnosis. No condition is automatically disqualifying, the assessment is individual, and whole categories of applicant are exempt from the cost rule entirely.
- Most refusals carry no appeal, which is not the same as no remedy. Temporary residence refusals have no appeal at all. Judicial review in the Federal Court tests the decision for legal error, and its deadlines are short.
- Youth matters and contraventions cannot ground inadmissibility for criminality. The Act says so expressly, for a contravention under the Contraventions Act, a finding of guilt under the Young Offenders Act, and a youth sentence under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The carve out is confined to the criminality and serious criminality provisions rather than to inadmissibility generally.
- Timing is usually the constraint rather than eligibility. Rehabilitation has waiting periods, most appeals have thirty days and a residency obligation appeal sixty, judicial review has fifteen, and restoration has ninety. Knowing which clock is running is the first piece of advice.
Where your problem sits
Medical inadmissibility
The three grounds, who is exempt from the cost rule entirely, what the threshold actually measures, and what a mitigation plan can and cannot cover.
See requirements → RecordCriminal inadmissibility
Equivalency, deemed and individual rehabilitation, record suspensions and permits, worked through a youthful cannabis offence and an impaired driving conviction.
See requirements →Refusals, appeals and misrepresentation
Who has an appeal and who does not, the thirty and fifteen day deadlines, and why concealment is the one problem that closes doors.
See requirements → Status lapsedExtending and restoring status
The ninety day restoration window, what it does not give you, and the date that separates a formality from an emergency.
See requirements →