Procedural Fairness letter

 

In cases where an Officer has specific concerns regarding an application, the officer will issue a letter in order to provide the Applicant an opportunity to respond to the Officer’s concerns. Such a letter is called a Procedural Fairness Letter.

 

Depending on the nature of the Application and the concern that the Officer has the degree of procedural fairness owed to an Applicant will vary. Procedural Fairness letter can arise out of any application where an officer has concerns regarding certain information that the Officer has before him or her.

 

With respect to Temporary Resident Applications, a concern may arise where an Officer is not satisfied that the person meet’s the requirements for the job when they are applying for a work permit such as language or specific skills or in cases where admissibility concerns arise such as misrepresentation.

 

With respect to Permanent Residence Applications a procedural fairness letter could arise where an Officer is not satisfied that the person worked within a specific employment position, where there are concerns around the genuineness of a relationship or where an Officer believes that a person may be inadmissible to Canada.

 

There can be more than one document or information that can be provided to address an Officer’s concern.

However, in some cases it might be difficult to address a concern if an Applicant is caught for instance misrepresenting certain facts.

 

In such circumstances if it involves a Permanent Residence Application, an applicant could seek relief based on Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds under certain circumstances.