I have received a Procedural Fairness Letter. How should I respond?
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Procedural Fairness Letter or a PFL is given as a process of natural justice in Canada and a PROPER AND LEGAL submission to that letter is perhaps your last chance to save yourself from being potentially banned from entering Canada for five years.
What is a Procedural Fairness Letter or PFL?
One may receive a procedural fairness letter if IRCC believes that a misrepresentation has been committed. The letter explains the reasons for their concerns and provides them with an opportunity to submit a response. IRCC usually provides a certain amount of time to respond. Failure to respond to a procedural fairness letter may result in the application refusal or a ban. If you ever face a ban from entering Canada, it is unlikely that Canada or any other major country (such as the US, UK or Australia) will ever issue you a visa. Hence, one MUST take this letter very seriously and deal with extreme caution. Consider this as your LAST CHANCE.
We have made a detailed YouTube video on this topic. You may watch that video from this link. If a long video is not for you, here is a shorter version.
How to reply to a procedural fairness letter?
More often than not, we come across clients who got so tensed after seeing that letter that they thought a quick response to IRCC would save their future and without any professional consultations, they respond to IRCC.
From our extensive experience in dealing with such cases, we can certainly confirm that knee-jerk reactions of such nature prove little to no effective at all, more often than not, those pleas are not heard and as a result, clients face the inevitable ban. Procedural Fairness Letters always come with a reasonable timeframe for you to come up with a legal response and those timeframes are given for a reason - for you to draft and submit a proper legal response with the help of adequate documentation. Utilize that time to the best of your advantage.
It is VERY important to reply properly, covering every aspect that IRCC should remain aware of.
We always advise clients to take stock of the situation, understand the options available on the table as it varies from one client to the next, learn how to respond legally and only then decide if they are confident in preparing such a comprehensive legal response with citation of relevant Canadian immigration case laws backed by relevant supporting documentations all by yourself or professional assistance will be required. We have made a video on this specific topic as well which will be useful to watch in this context.
Unless and until you have a thorough understanding of the Immigration and Refugee Act of Canada (IRPA 2002) and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations of Canada (IRPR), it is probably a prudent idea to seek professional assistance for this kind of complex legal task.
All in all, a Procedural Fairness Letter is a very critical document that needs to be taken very seriously and a comprehensive legal response needs to be given within the permissible time limit that satisfies the IRCC and meets the regulations.
Responding to the Procedural Fairness Letter is our STRENGTH and we specialize in this subject. If you need our professional assistance with this, please feel free to book a Professional Consultation as the very first step and we will go through your case in detail to be able to guide you in the right direction. We typically take complete legal representation for our clients, draft the legal response and submit the same to the IRCC - all from our side - to give you complete peace of mind.
Some of the real-life examples of the Procedural Fairness Letters
Situation 1: The client failed to declare previous visa refusals
Wordings of the PFL: “I have concerns that you have not fulfilled the requirement put upon you by section 16(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which states:
16(1) A person who makes an application must answer truthfully all questions put to them for the examination and must produce a visa and all relevant evidence and documents that the officer reasonably requires.
Specifically, I have concerns that you have misrepresented your immigration history. When asked if you have been refused refugee status, an immigrant or permanent resident visa (including a Certificat de Sélection du Québec [CSQ] or application to the Provincial Nominee Program) or a visitor or temporary resident visa, for Canada or any other country or territory, you responded negatively. System records indicate that you have previously been refused a visa. When you signed the IMM 5669, you declared that the information you have given is truthful, complete and correct. This had diminished the overall credibility of your application.”
Situation 2: The officer believes that the marriage was not genuine
Wordings of the PFL: “I have determined that you may not meet the requirements of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act because you do not appear to meet R4 or A16.
The Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations state, in section: R4 R 4. (1) For these Regulations, a foreign national shall not be considered a spouse, a common-law partner or a marital partner of a person if the marriage, common-law partnership or conjugal partnership
(a) was entered into primarily to acquire any status or privilege under the Act; or (b) is not genuine.”
Situation 3: Spouse is not considered as a member of the family class
Wordings of the PFL: “Section 117(9)(d) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations states that a “foreign national shall not be considered a member of the family class by their relationship to a sponsor if...the sponsor previously made an application for permanent residence and became a permanent resident and, at the time of that application, the foreign national was a non-accompanying family member of the sponsor and was not examined”.
Your marriage certificate indicates that you and your sponsor were married on 30 November 2022. Your sponsor became a permanent resident of Canada on 05 May 2023. You were not declared or examined as a family member of the sponsor at the time of your sponsor’s application for permanent residence in Canada. You are therefore not a member of the family class.”
Situation 4: IELTS is fake
Wordings of the PFL: “I have reviewed your application and documents you submitted in its support. I have concerns that you have not fulfilled the requirement put upon you by section 16(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which states:
16(1) A person who makes an application must answer truthfully all questions put to them for the examination and must produce a visa and all relevant evidence and documents that the officer reasonably requires.
Specifically, I am concerned with the authenticity of the IELTS test you provided.”
Situation 5: Intent to reside outside of Quebec
Wordings of the PFL: “To qualify as a member of the Canadian Experience Class, all applicants must intend to reside in a province other than the province of Quebec. Upon review of your application and submissions, it appears that you were residing in Quebec from 2017/08 to 2020/12. I also note that your Letter of Employment states you currently work for the same employer in Quebec as a remote worker but does not state your work location. I also note that your current address listed is the same as your Canadian sibling. Therefore, I have concerns that you do not reside outside of Quebec.”
Thank you for reading.
