Hope for those Excluded from Sponsoring Family Members under s.117(9)(d)
We have written on the harsh consequences of omitting family members when an applicant immigrates to Canada. They are then precluded from sponsoring those family members in the future. The only recourse used to be a humanitarian and compassionate application -a remedy that was completely at the discretion of a visa officer.
This applies to non-accompanying family members who were not declared and examined by immigration authorities when the sponsor was initially applying to immigrate to Canada, and were thus subject to a lifetime ban as per 117(9)(d) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations.
However, the sponsor must have been a resettled refugee, a protected person, or someone who was sponsored as a spouse, common-law partner, or dependent child. The public policy does not apply if the sponsor was granted permanent status in Canada under any other class.
Presumably, CIC/CBSA will not pursue misrepresentation/inadmissibility/enforcement measures against these sponsors (and arguably, shouldn’t be proceeding against the others that do not benefit from this new policy).
The policy applies to applications still in process on May 31, 2019 and applications either received or pending reconsideration between May 31, 2019 and September 9 2021.
All other eligibility and admissibility requirements still apply to the permanent residence application being processed.