Temporary Resident Applicants – Make Sure You Put Your Best Foot Forward

You’ve answered all the questions, and your temporary resident application includes all the required documents. You’ve done everything you need to before applying, right? Not always.

Although the application package for a visa includes a list of documents, this list only includes the minimum required documents, not all of those which may be invaluable to support a particular case. And if there’s a document that a visa officer would need to be convinced to accept a case, they aren’t under any obligation to point this out to the applicant.

Rather, as the Federal Court has explained, “In general, the onus is on a visa applicant to put his best foot forward by providing all relevant supporting documentation and sufficient credible evidence in support of his application. The onus does not shift to the visa officer and there is no entitlement to a personal interview if the application is ambiguous or supporting material is not included [citations omitted].”

There are only a few cases in which duty of fairness requires an officer to let an applicant know about their concerns prior to a decision, one of them is when the officer is basing a decision on regional stereotypes.

Sometimes, despite a refusal, applicants will continue submitting applications, unaware of what they may be omitting that is causing their problems. But a little help can go a long way. We know the challenges of putting together a truly complete application and the problems that applicants may run into given their unfamiliarity with the immigration system. We build our cases based on merit and can help you put your best foot forward to maximize your cases of success.

*See e.g. Dhillon v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2009 FC 614 (CanLII) at para 30.

“[29] Mr. Dhillon claims that the Visa Officer should have conducted an interview in order to confront him with his concerns and give him a chance to provide explanations.

[30] It is trite law that a Visa Officer has no obligation to interview an applicant and that said applicant has no legitimate expectation of having an interview:

[16] It seems to me the visa officer went beyond what was expected. The officer was under no obligation to alert Mr. Liu of these concerns since they were about matters that arose directly from Mr. Liu’s own evidence and from the requirements of the Act and of the Regulations. An applicant’s failure to provide adequate, sufficient or credible proof with respect to his visa application does not trigger a duty to inform the applicant in order for him to submit further proof to address the finding of the officer with respect to the inadequacy, deficiency or lack of credibility…”

It is not worth the risk, please call us for assistance, we are here to help you!