A collective of immigration Canada applicants who sued the Federal government over processing delays are close to discovering whether they can finally immigrate to Canada. A new Canadian law allows Immigration Canada to close more than 250,000 old applications. Mere weeks prior to Bill-C-38 becoming a law, the Federal court ruled that all Canada immigration applications received into the system must be processed.
But now that the law is in effect, it is expected to eliminate nearly 300,000 skilled worker Canada applications in exchange for a refund of over 130 million dollars in Canadian immigration application fees. The judge in the impending case must decide whether to order Canada immigration to process all the files, including those impacted by Bill C-38.
Lorne Waldman, a Canadian immigration lawyer involved in the pending suit, said the constitutional argument they will put forward will be that C-38 ought to be “struck down” because it denies applicants “due process.” “We are arguing that is it is inconsistent with our Charter and Bill of Rights to take away the right to apply to come to Canada in this fashion.” It should be noted that a favourable ruling for those specific applicants involved in the suit would have no bearing on the thousands of other applicants impacted by Bill C-38.
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