In a statement issued on February 28, 2010, Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenny commented on the recent ruling of the Federal Court, dismissing Mr. Nasoh Raslan’s appeal of his citizenship denial. It is considered somewhat unusual for the Immigration Minister to comment on these types of cases. However, in his statement, Mr. Kenney called the decision in the case of the Syrian immigrant “an unmitigated victory for the rule of law.”

Following the advice of an immigration consultant, Mr. Raslan, a Montreal (Quebec) resident, falsely claimed that his address was in Mississauga (Ontario) because processing was faster than in Quebec. He alleged that he lived in an apartment in Mississauga but the citizenship officer noticed that Mr. Raslan had offered two different apartment numbers for his address on two separate documents. Further investigation revealed that Raslan’s home phone number had been used by 62 other citizenship applicants and that his mailing address had been used by 127 applicants.

When Mr. Raslan appeared before a citizenship judge in October 2008, he maintained that he lived at the Mississauga address and presented a lease agreement to support his claim. The Citizenship Judge ruled that Mr. Raslan was not credible and had not met the necessary residency requirement. Mr. Raslan appealed the decision of the Citizenship Judge to the Federal Court.

The Federal Court found that Mr. Raslan “knowingly and wilfully embarked on a course of conduct to deceive the Citizenship Court concerning his true residence in Canada for the purpose of jumping the queue. He falsified his citizenship application to obtain an advantage which was not his in order thus to obtain a fundamental right – Canadian citizenship.” The Federal Court then dismissed Mr. Raslan’s appeal.

Mr. Raslan’s affidavit filed with the Federal Court said, “I now know that I definitely did not do the right thing but at the time, I thought that applying through Mississauga was simply a common and small stretch to the rules, and I was exhausted by all the applications and the complications so far.” Mr. Raslan was making his third citizenship application since arriving in Canada with his family in August 1999.

In Federal Court, Mr. Raslan’s lawyer argued that his client’s transgression was a “technical” one since he had met the Citizenship Act requirement to maintain a physical presence in Canada for three out of four years. But Judge Lemieux said he could not ignore Mr. Raslan’s lies since to do so would only encourage others to falsify their documents. Mr. Raslan retains his status as a permanent resident of Canada.

Immigration consultants have become a subject of discussion recently. We previously reported that there are more illegal immigration consultants than registered members of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants. In addition, we reported that the the RCMP is currently investigating allegations of alleged fraud by immigration consultants in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC”) announced today that, as a result of the February 27 earthquake near the city of Concepción, the visa section of the Canadian Embassy in Santiago is temporarily closed. CIC is making every effort to restore services as soon as possible.

Temporary resident visa applicants who need to travel to Canada before the visa office re-opens are asked to submit their applications to another Canadian visa office. Persons with Permanent Resident applications in process are being told that full processing will resume shortly.