Applying for a tourist visa (Temporary Resident Visa) to Canada should be a simple, painless, and fair process. But these days, it’s far from that.

You must creatively challenge the system when denied reasonable access to fair, impartial treatment by an immigration officer to visit Canada. ~ IbraDanCreative GetOut! Stories

How do you stay calm when someone seemingly higher up the food chain arbitrarily says no to your visa request? — it’s not easy!

Especially when your request is well within the eligibility criteria of your humble desire to explore a great country (I’m biased), abide by the rules, then return home.

My guy Ibrahim submitted a solid Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) visa application and was oddly refused!

It was a devastating blow as his temporary stay was a part larger plan to explore a skilled worker, international student or family class application in an attempt to lawfully immigrate to Canada, become a citizen and contribute to our society.

The Ideal

Newcomers bring their heritage, culture, talent, ideas and perspectives. For over a century, immigration has been a means to support the population, economic, and cultural growth in Canada. Millions of eligible people worldwide have chosen to reside in Canada and make it their new home. Whether seeking better economic opportunities, reuniting with family members, or seeking protection as resettled refugees or other protected persons, newcomers to Canada have been a significant source of ongoing growth and prosperity. Source: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

The reality

The quote above paints a rosy picture. But in reality, the government’s admission system contains significant flaws.

Like many people from less developed countries, Ibrahim faces adversity to overcome what we often take for granted. — equal access to create a better life that matters.

If you have an ounce of empathy (I’ll assume you do), you’ll cringe at the seemingly insurmountable obstacles non-heterosexual couples must endure living together. — the same rights and privileges most mortals take for granted every day. (many stories for another time)

Why was he denied?

This piece of writing is about Ibrahim’s Tourist Visa (Temporary Resident Visa) to Canada from Bangladesh, hosted by his Canadian partner.

I’ll never forget the day we got the bad news.

Hello Daniel and Ibrahim, We have received the decision, and unfortunately, the application has been refused. We are disappointed to receive the refusal; however, there is an option to challenge the decision at the Federal Court. This consists of filing legal submissions arguing why the decision is unreasonable.

WTF!!!

Ibrahim and I were shocked! We planned this part of our journey for over a year and were optimistic. The denial felt like a death blow…. as if a loved one had died in a tragic accident. — -This was a tragedy!

We cried our eyes out for days.

There was no reasonable explanation for the refusal.

“I don’t think the people behind these visa decisions appreciate the profound impact their highly subjective, sometimes whimsical decisions have onthe lives of visitors, let alone their Canadian hosts.”

We must help those who can’t easily advocate for themselves. We are one big connected species.

Fairness is a rare earth commodity these days. So for anyone’s self-respect and dignity, we must challenge the systems that pin us down, no matter how expensive, awkward or time-consuming.

Always speak truth to power.

Having the courage to stand up for what’s right and tell people in charge what’s what. That’s the idea behind the phrase speak truth to power, an expression for courageously confronting an authority, calling out injustices on their watch — Dictionary.com.

So you want a visa, eh?

The Canadian Visa application typically takes three to four weeks to process. However, by December 2022, the average wait time for a Temporary Residence (Tourist) Visa from Bangladesh (and many other countries) to Canada was over 215 Days. That’s a seven-month delay — — and embarrassingly unacceptable!

Shame on you, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada!

So the ministry is inundated with new applicants wanting to study, work, live and contribute to our economy. Boo hoo, get over it and do your dam job!

Despite government employees’ receiving above-average job compensation, the Feds, like many employers, struggle to maintain adequate staffing levels to meet their public service obligations. — fuck off!!

In Ibrahims’ case, Immigration and Citizenship failed to process his visas promptly or fairly.

In 2023 blaming Visa backlogs on the pandemic is a tiresome lame excuse. — — stop it!

Over the years, I’ve met many decent civil servants who try their best to serve the public within a dysfunctional bureaucracy overlaid with political contradictions that impact one’s ability to be efficient.

Could the decent workers have left their jobs while the bottom-of-the-barrel folks stayed behind to make hell for those who need results?

In 2022 Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship said they planned on hiring more staff to tackle the massive backlog of files. — not good enough!

Still, despite these efforts, the pressure to clear the backlog can inspire eager butt-licking visa officers to bulk-refuse suitable applicants. So — — think about it!

For crying out loud, there’s no excuse for incompetence from a wealthy progressive human rights world leader like Canada.

The dweebs higher up the political and bureaucratic food chain have lost sight of foreigners’ profound socio-economic benefits to our land and way of life.

There’s no shortage of gut-wrenching stories from immigrants wanting to visit or live legally with a partner, family member or dear friend. Love knows no geopolitical boundaries.

They should have said yes to his application.

So my Lovi from afar received an auto-generated Visa refusal decision letter. The cookie-cutter response was odd for a simple tourist visa.

We hired a seasoned immigration lawyer to ensure a well-supported professional application was initially submitted. As a result, our documentation was impeccable, and the reasons for visiting Canada were sound.

The five item-menu reasons the feds gave for denying his application defied logic and were laughable.

It’s as if the visa officer had a quota that day for processing and rejecting applications, so they auto-sent a standard rejection letter without reading the file or considering the facts. — I’m sure of this!

Woohoo, boss; Do I get a gold star on my performance review for being an excellent civil servant bot reducing your self-inflicted backlog and rejecting hundreds (or more) humans in one day?

The visa elves probably thought no poor Bangladeshi would spend thousands in legal fees challenging an unfavourable visa decision. — — wrong bucko!

I cringe to think our progressive democracy still has pencil-necks who believe their actions (or lack thereof) are an acceptable delivery standard.

Or officers get off abusing their power, cutting corners, and preventing “those people” from sharing in our greatness.

Okay, I sound bitter and pissed off, but I have a valid reason, and this one hits close to home! — so the gloves are coming off.

I’m all for protecting Canada and enforcing due diligence to defend our borders from harmful humans.

But when decent, honest, hard-working, law-abiding people from other countries want to visit AND leave when their time is up. — for the love of Allah, let them in!

Refrain from assuming because they are poor and we’re rich; they’ll abandon their work and family obligations back home to live in a ridiculously overpriced city like Toronto.

But what if…?

What if a tourist comes here, gets married in Canada, and then applies for permanent residency? Did they trick the government? — Of course NOT!

We are a democracy: It’s common for tourists to visit a country, get married, and apply for permanent residency, as long as it’s done with honesty (a legit relationship). And they intend to contribute to the greater good of our land (99.9% do).

For permanent residency, immigration assesses whether it’s a bona fide (in good faith, without deception or fraud) relationship.

But an immigration officer can not reject a tourist visa based on the undocumented assumption the applicant might get married, stay and apply for permanent residency.

And if they suspect such a factor must state so in their refusal decision and case evaluation notes.

Visa officers, when asked, are obligated to present documentation as evidence of their decision. These notes (or lack thereof) are critical for an immigration lawyer to craft a redetermination appeal/response.

In Ibrahim’s case, there was no suspicion on any issue or the notion that he would get married and then apply for permanent residency. — — so, one can’t use warm fuzzy pics of him and me bonding on Instagram as material evidence. — — catch my drift?

A come to Allah moment.

Here’s the reality… We will fight the system and never give up until the visa is granted. Our lives depend on it. We’re fighting for our rights and freedoms, and no, girl, I’m not being overly dramatic. — this is life and death.

Have you ever been in a situation where NO was not a viable response? Yet, regardless of the price to pay, you must fight back — your David and Goliath moment.

The story is an inspiring example of how the plucky underdog could defeat someone much bigger than him against the odds. Source: Interesting literature

The legal process for him.

The first option to get a “refused” visa application approved is to appeal the adverse decision.

In this case, we believe there might be evidence to suggest the immigration officer made a mistake in refusing the application.

Generally speaking, an incorrect visa refusal may be due to the immigration officer:

• Stepping outside of their jurisdiction (doubt it)
• Acing unfairly (likely)
• Or, in an extreme case, broke the law. (not likely)

There’s no way to know if the immigration officer crossed the line on any of these points.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to appeal to the Federal Court of Canada (also called a Judicial Review) Sadly this means going through an expensive judicial review process.

What would you do in this case? You have nothing to lose and only justice and fairness to gain.

Another option after an appeal is a request for immigration to reconsiderthe visa application. Again, it’s in our best interest to request a reconsideration.

Reconsiderations could be due to citing misinterpreted information. This is where a seasoned immigration layer ensures we submit all correct supporting documents and relevant information in our compelling response to arrive at a favourable decision.

And finally, after the two options listed above are exhausted, we can re-apply with a new application. But only after ensuring we resolve the reasons for refusing the first submission.

Honestly, I don’t think it will come to submit a new visa application, and Ibrahim will eventually get his visa.

Please don’t insult me.

Someone said to me the other day. “It must be nice to waste money fighting the government for your new boyfriend….. Canada has the right to refuse entry to anyone.”

— — are you kidding me!!?!

I almost slugged him for his arrogance but forgave him for his pure ignorance — — oh, pity the stupid who walk among us!

Canada is not China?

I told him, “no one wants to waste thousands on legal fees, but what choice do we have? How much do you “waste’ on your kids, dog, or wifey-pooh?” (I sarcastically said)

Over the years, I’ve seen the importance (and good results) of speaking truth to power. If we don’t, who will stand up for what’s right?

We live in a thriving democracy, not an authoritarian party dictatorship like China. But unfortunately, too many innocent folks face the same unfair issues.

By challenging the government, we shed light on systemic barriers and hopefully drive positive change.

At least Ibrahim and I sleep at night, satisfied that we tried our best that day and will leave no stone unturned until the job is done.

One day we’ll look back and chuckle at how we creatively overcame adversity.

Thanks for listening

In fairness,

#AboutDan , #Canada , #Immigration , #justice , #LGBTQ , #Medium , #Visa , #Why