Refugee Cases

Those seeking Canada’s protection can make a Refugee Claim if they are in Canada. A refugee is a person who fears persecution in their home country on the basis of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or particular social group.

Refugee claims

Refugee status can also be established if a person can show a risk to their life or of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment, or a risk of torture in their home country.
The risk faced by the refugee must be a personal one, and not one related to a general risk in the home country. The risk must also be one that the police authorities in the home country are unable or unwilling to protect the refugee claimant from.

Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds:

People who would not normally be eligible to become permanent residents of Canada may be able to apply on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Typically, the H&C application is made by individuals inside Canada, who have no other way to remain, face hardships on return to their home country, or who face inadmissibility issues. However, the H&C provision can also be accessed by those outside Canada. The Minister must consider application requests made inside Canada while the Minister may consider applications from outside.

There are two primary ways we make H&C requests on overseas applications:

• to overcome an admissibility issue on an existing application (eg. criminality or medical), or
• relying on H&Cs to overcome eligibility (eg. sponsoring a person who cannot otherwise be sponsored)

With the recent changes in Afghanistan, for Afghans with family or friends in Canada who are willing to ‘sponsor’ them, it may be worthwhile exploring the option of filing a sponsorship application with an H&C request to overcome the fact that the persons abroad are not members of the sponsor’s family class. Such an application would rely heavily on the situation in Afghanistan, and the hardships that the applicants would be subject to.

H&C requests are often used when there is no other option. That is exactly the situation of desperation for many in Afghanistan who cannot flee their country to try to make a claim for asylum elsewhere. An H&C may be worth pursuing in such a situation.

Book a consultation and assessment – we are here to help!

Refugee Travel Document:

If you are a protected person in Canada or gained your permanent residency through refugee protection, you are eligible to apply for a refugee travel document. You can travel to some countries without a visa with this travel document. You can not travel to your country of nationality with this travel document. If you want to apply book a consultation

Economic Mobility Pathway Pilot:

The Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) combines refugee resettlement and economic immigration. It’s a pathway that

• helps skilled refugees immigrate to Canada through existing economic programs
• gives employers access to a new pool of qualified candidates to fill job openings

You need to be outside of Canada and in a refugee like situation to be eligible to apply for this program. If you want to know more about this program and check your eligibility, we are here to help.

Private Refugee Sponsorship (Group of Five):

Five Canadians or Permanent Residents of Canada can join together to sponsor refugees who are outside their country of nationality and have a valid refugee document issued either by UNHCR or country of asylum where they currently reside.

To know more about this type of refugee sponsorship, please book a consultation.