Date: 19980828
Docket: IMM-4112-97
BETWEEN:
NANDRANI RAMDELALL
Applicant
-and-
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent.
REASONS FOR ORDER
WETSTON J.
[1] The Applicant, a resident of Guyana, applied for a visitors visa to Canada on June 16, 1995. On her application, the Applicant falsely stated that she was married to David Mangru. Shortly after her arrival in Canada in July 1995, she married Mr. Ramdelall.
[2] The Applicant applied for landed immigrant status in Canada in the spring of 1996, with her husband as sponsor. On December 3, 1996, the Applicant had an interview with an immigration officer who informed her that she was not in a legal position to marry Mr. Ramdelall because of her marriage in Guyana. The Applicant was asked to provide evidence showing that she had not been married to Mr. Mangru in Guyana.
[3] The Applicant submitted a sworn affidavit of Sheila Chapman, a lawyer in Guyana, in which Ms. Chapman attested to having conducted a search at the General Registrar's Office in Guyana and having found no record of any marriage of the Applicant. The immigration officer subsequently received information from the Immigration Section of the Canadian High Commission in Jamaica that suggested the statements contained in Ms. Chapman's affidavit were incorrect..
[4] In a second interview with the Immigration Officer, on September 8, 1997, the Applicant was informed of the contradiction between Ms. Chapman's affidavit and the information sent by the Immigration Section in Jamaica. The Applicant subsequently received a letter from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, dated September 16, 1997, which denied her application for exemption from subsection 9(1) of the Immigration Act on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, pursuant to subsection 114(2) of the Act.
[5] The Immigration officer doubted the Applicant's credibility, in view of the fact that she made a false statement on her visa application and supplied the Immigration officer with what appeared to be a false affidavit. Nevertheless, there is another issue which must be considered. The Applicant was not provided with notice of the certain information which the immigration officials had received from the Canadian High Commission in Jamaica until the second interview on September 8, 1997.
[6] In Shah v. Minister of Employment and Immigration, (1994) 170 N.R. 238 at 239 (F.C.A.), Mr. Justice Hugessen noted:
| In a case such as this one the applicant does not have a "case to meet" of which he must be given notice; rather it is for him to persuade the decision-maker that he should be given exceptional treatment and exempted from the general requirements of the law. No hearing need be held and no reasons need by given. The officer is not required to put before the applicant any tentative conclusions she may be drawing from the material before her, not even as to apparent contradictions that concern her. Of course, if she is going to rely on extrinsic evidence, not brought forward by the applicant, she must give him a chance to respond to such evidence. [emphasis added] |
The letter from the High Commission was clearly extrinsic evidence, as it was evidence of which the Applicant had no knowledge because it came from an outside source: Dasent v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, (IMM-5386-93, F.C.T.D., December 8, 1994, unreported), [1994] F.C.J. No. 1902. The letter was dated April 4, 1997, and the Applicant was not informed of the letter's existence until September 8, 1997. The immigration officer's decision letter was dated September 16, 1997. The Applicant had only one week in which to respond to this evidence.
[7] No explanation was provided as to the delay in informing her of the visa office's letter; a delay of over four months. The letter was presented to her at her interview of September 8, 1997. In my opinion, while notice was provided at the second interview, in this case, this was clearly inadequate.
[8] The decision of the Visa Officer is set aside and referred to another Visa Officer for reconsideration. There is no question to be certified.
Howard I. Wetston
Judge
Ottawa, Ontario
August 28, 1998