Borderlines

In this episode, we break down IRCC's practice of rejecting applications for incompleteness, often for minor technical issues. Effectively a form of stats manipulation, this practice creates a misleading picture of departmental efficiency while leaving applicants stranded, often forcing them to restart the process for trivial errors.

Cases discussed include Gennai v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2017 FCA 29 and Goel v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2025 FC 275.

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Misty Ty is a documentary film maker. Her father, Robert Ty, was the owner of a shipping company whose cargo ship, The Tung An, encountered a fishing vessel with over 200 people. Misty Ty was one of the children on that boat.

The Vietnamese Boat People were refugees who fled Vietnam by sea after the fall of Saigon in 1975, escaping communist rule and persecution. Over one million people would flee. Several hundred thousand would perish due to storms, starvation, pirate attacks, and overcrowded boats. In response to the humanitarian crisis, Canada would introduce its private refugee sponsorship program, and resettle tens of thousands of Indochinese.

Misty's website for the project is thetungan.com. She would love to hear from anyone who was on, or whose relatives were on, the Tung An.

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Martin Levine was a Visa Officer and Analyst at Citizenship and Immigration Canada from 1978 – 2009. He then worked as a contract employee as an ATIP Analyst for numerous federal departments. He previously appeared on Episodes #108 and #110.

Towards the end of episode #110 Martin commented that he thought the immigration consultant profession shouldn't exist. Steven said that this was a huge topic and probably deserved its own episode.

In this episode Martin explains why he believes that Canada should abolish the immigration consultant profession. Steven and Deanna disagree. Numerous arguments and counter arguments are discussed.

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Erin Brandt is a co-founder of PortaLaw, a Vancouver law firm which specializes in employment law.

Audience submitted questions that we discuss include:

1. Is it illegal for employers to not provide reference letters necessary for immigration purposes or to charge their employees for them?
2. Is it illegal for employers with foreign worker employees to not apply for LMIAs to try to extend their employees' employment?
3. Can employers distinguish between Canadian citizens, permanent residents and foreign workers when hiring? 
4. Can an employer not hire a foreign national or asylum claimant if they are likely to be deported? 
5. Is it ok for an employer to ask if someone is an asylum claimant? 
6. If an employer learns that an employee is without status - and the employee lied to them - can they legitimately refuse to pay the employee out for work completed during this time? 
7. If in order to meet prevailing wage an employer increases the wages of all of their LMIA-based TFWs, is it discrimination to not also increase it for their permanent resident or Canadian employees? 

We also discuss the Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Imperial Oil Limited v. Haseeb, 2023 ONCA 364, upheld a Human Rights Tribunal decision that it was a breach of human rights for an employer to fire an employee because of their temporary resident status.

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This episode answers a listener topic request about an increase in IRCC refusals of provincial nominees.

As well, Steven offers his unimpressed thoughts on Marc Miller's recent statement in response to complaints about huge decreases in provincial nominee quotas that “Provinces and Territories that are willing to work in a responsible manner with Canada, including playing a role in taking on asylum seekers, will have an opportunity to regain coveted Provincial Nominee spots.”

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On January 21, 2025, IRCC restricted the availability of open spousal work permits to principal applicants working in certain "skilled" professions. Family open work permits are now limited to spouses of foreign workers who are employed in TEER 0 or 1 occupations, or select TEER 2 or 3 occupations in sectors with labour shortages or linked to government priorities such as natural and applied sciences, construction, health care, natural resources, education, sports and military sectors.

The move more than reversed a December 2, 2022, announcement that IRCC would be allowing most spouses of workers in Canada to obtain open work permits because, according to the government, it would "improve the emotional well-being, physical health and financial stability of workers by keeping families together" and that the "worker will better integrate into their overall work environment and community."

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Christopher Worswick is a Professor of Economics at Carleton University.

We discuss the economics of Canada's plan to reduce its population, and specifically that 1,000,000 - 2,000,000 foreign students and workers will leave Canada from 2025-2027. Topics include impacts on GDP per capita, unemployment, housing and more.

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Lisa Brunner is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Centre for Migration Studies.

We discuss the current situation international students are facing, the gaslighting over whether they were told that being a student would likely lead them to permanent residency, how post-graduate work permit holders in British Columbia are taking leaves of absence to study French, international students claiming asylum, and more.

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On this episode, Steve and Deanna discuss the effect of cross-border travel on the validity of a visitor record. The question is: do they become invalidated by travel outside Canada? The topic was raised by Tamara Mosher Kuczer in episode 140, in which she reported an uptick in visitor record extension refusals due to prior invalidation of the original visitor record.

After that episode several listeners asked us to expand on the topic.

The scenario, and what is occuring, is this.

A family enters Canada, with the parents receiving three-year work permits and the children granted three-year visitor records.

After one year, the family travels abroad for a month. Upon their return, the Canada Border Services Agency stamps the children's passports but does not issue new visitor records or indicate an extended stay.

Before the parents' work permits and the children's visitor records expire, the family applies to extend their status.

IRCC approves the parents' work permit extensions but informs the family that the children's visitor records were automatically canceled when they left Canada. IRCC explains that upon re-entry, the children were only granted a six-month stay because CBSA did not issue new visitor records or mark an extended date in their passports.

While the parents' new work permits are approved, the children are ordered to leave Canada.

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