Interview calls after a PFL response (spousal sponsorship)

S.16 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) of Canada reads the following.

16 (1) A person who makes an application must answer truthfully all questions put to them for the purpose of the examination and must produce a visa and all relevant evidence and documents that the officer reasonably requires.

Obligation — appear for examination

1.1) A person who makes an application must, on request of an officer, appear for an examination.

(source: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-2.5/section-16.html)

In simple term, the reviewing IRCC Officer reserves the right to conduct an for an immigration examination interview, if the Officer is of the opinion that, on the balance of probabilities, the Applicant and/or the Sponsor have not answered all the questions truthfully in their submission or that they have withheld any material information which could induce an error in the decision making process or that there has been inconsistencies in their submission, which is causing concerns to evaluate the genuineness of the relationship.

Typically, keeping in mind the principles of natural justice and procedural fairness (and to maintain process efficiency), the Officer would share a Procedural Fairness Letter (PFL), clearly mentioning her concerns and ideally allow 30 days for a constructive response to be presented for the Applicant to alley Officer’s concerns. If the Applicant’s response to the PFL is not satisfactory, the Officer would require to conduct an interview for further questioning or verification of facts. The requirement of an Interview becomes more important for a Common-Law Application, wherein the burden of proof is even higher on the applicant to prove that the relationship is genuine and is not entered into for the applicant to gain an undue advantage under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of Canada.

Hence, the requirement of an interview may stem from a not so satisfactory PFL response. If the Applicant makes a constructive submission to the PFL, the requirement of an interview may not even arise in the first place. Should the PFL response is not constructive in the opinion of the Officer, she would need to mandatorily conduct an immigration interview to ensure that the relationship and the marriage are not for the purpose of the Applicant to gain an undue advantage under the IRPA. In other words, the onus lies on the Applicant to prove that the marriage is not the marriage of convenience from day 1, and more so on the PFL response.

Immigration interview questions.

The Interview would typically cover the following aspects:

a) How and when did you meet your spouse?

b) How did the relationship develop? Detailed relationship milestones.

c) Description of first meeting.

d) Who proposed, when, how, where?

e) Tell me the complete legal name of your spouse, date of birth, place of birth, hobbies, educational qualification, job responsibilities, daily routine, likes and dislikes, favourite colour, preferred honeymoon destinations, favourite food, memories from the first date et.al

f) Future plans, including children, boy or girl.

g) Anything else as the Officer deem fit for the purpose of examination.

Tips.

a) Be truthful and honest in your submission. Never lie.

b) Be consistent.

c) If a question is unclear, do not hesitate to ask for clarification before answering the question.

d) Do not rush, be soft, polite, and to the point. Answer the question asked in as simple way as possible. Avoid long sentences.

Professional assistance.

If you are confident in answering the PFL, by all means go for it. But if you are not, take professional help from day 1 to ensure your critical situation is handled with care and professionalism to ensure the interview situation does not arise in the first place. Inconsistent and incomplete submissions are fatal to a Spousal Sponsorship application and a response to a procedural fairness letter requires legal knowledge, understanding of Canadian legal writing principles, and analysis of relevant case laws.

At Nuvonation, we specialize in responding to complicated Procedural Fairness Letters and we handle complicated spousal sponsorship and common-law applications. We maintain 99% success rate and in these many years, only one client from Nigeria was called for an interview due to the requirement of physical verification of her marriage certificate and it was handled successfully with our professional assistance. If you require our professional assistance, either with a spousal sponsorship or responding to a Procedural Fairness Letter, please visit our website to schedule a Professional Consultation. We do not sell our services during a Professional Consultation, and hence, expect to receive comprehensive answers to all your case specific questions.

Feel free to watch a short YouTube Video on this topic.

Thank you for reading.

Niladri Mukherjee, R709205

Founder and CEO - Nuvonation Immigration Consulting

Schedule a Virtual Consultation with me - Professional Consultation

Windsor, ON, Canada