by Atty. Gregory James

A refugee claimant whose claim is refused is almost always subject to a deportation order. Once a person is subject to a deportation order she is banned from ever returning to Canada unless she can get special permission from a visa officer.

I had a very pleasant meeting with a couple of my former clients this afternoon. After being deported from Canada they are now back as permanent residents.

They hired me after they had been told they were being deported. We started working on their application for permanent residence right away, and filed it at a Canadian visa office. They had to leave Canada, which they understandably found stressful. But their ultimate goal has been accomplished, and they are now permanent residents of Canada and in three years will be able to apply for citizenship.

They are not the only clients who have been able to accomplish this. In other cases we were able to file the application at the visa office before the client was called in to the deportation office. Many of those clients spent very little time outside Canada before coming back - sometimes as quickly as four weeks later.

This strategy is often simpler, faster and more likely to succeed than the usual strategy of filing an application inside Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

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Atty. Gregory James is an immigration lawyer in Toronto. You may contact him about permanent residence in Canada by calling him at 416-538-1301 or visit www.gregoryjameslaw.com