Wait, we will contact you. When an answering machine is more important than a human life: how the ministry "forgot" about an Afghan applicant, and what the court said about it.
I periodically read the decisions of federal and supreme court and you know it's quite interesting, although sometimes it's not funny, it’s very very sad. Like, for example, in this situation.
Program for obtaining permanent residence for residents of Afghanistan who have worked for Canada for many years. As we remember, in 2021, after the Taliban came to power, everyone who worked with foreign missions or assisted in this work was in mortal danger and Canada created a special permanent residence program with a quota of 40 thousand applicants. I still remember this very well, since Canada brilliantly used this excuse not to work for almost a year, and also not to consider other files. But as it turns out now, these priority files were not considered either.
Imagine: a person who risked his life to cooperate with Canada in Afghanistan applies to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IRCC, as required by the instructions. They send everything on time, in August 2021, attaches documents, recommendations. And what do they get? Yes, an answering machine. One, two, seventeen automated responses and so on. “Your letter has been received. We will contact you shortly.”
Sound familiar?
What did the ministry do?
‼ Nothing.
The letters were in the email, the program was running, the applicant's colleagues had already been resettled to Canada, and he was left hoping for... an answering machine. The ministry essentially ignored his request, the deadlines and its own promises.
When the time passed, the applicant received a message “your application was rejected, the program is closed, wishing you “all the best”!
What was the argument? A classic response: “This was not a real application. This is just an expression of interest. We have no obligation. And the program has already ended." Sounds nice, right? But there is a nuance: it was through this email-box that the application was submitted, and the ministry itself called it "application" in its responses.
The applicant decided not to give up and filed an appeal.
The judge honestly said: this must not work this way. The state had a duty to process the letter, make a decision, and not hide behind quotas and bureaucratic excuses. Moreover, ignoring the applicant in the face of a threat to their life is not a "minor mistake", but a big violation of justice and the law.
As a result, the court forced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IRCC:
- • to review the applicant's application within 30 days,
- • if the decision is positive, to forward it further and issue an invitation (ITA),
- • and then to review the full application for permanent residence.
And here's the cherry on top: for all these years of silence and helpless auto-responses, the state is obliged to pay the applicant $15,000 in compensation.
Question: could it have been done differently?
Of course. It was enough to simply do your job back in 2021: open the application letter and make a decision. But the ministry chose the option "maybe it will resolve itself." In this case, it didn't resolve itself. But imagine how many such applicants are out there, giving up on their chances to get a PR thinking "if they refused, so there is nothing I can do."
The bitter truth of today's realities: the Ministry does not avoid mistakes, on the contrary, it consistently makes them. And if you think that "inconvenient" letters or applications just quietly disappear in their email, then you are right. But that is exactly why you need to fight for your rights till the end: sometimes the "Rest assured" auto-response turns into a court decision, compensation and a chance for a new life. As the latest example from my practice today: we sent an applicant’s passport, warned in advance that we would send the passport, sent the passport, received a refusal - "you did not send us the passport"! BUT! There is an official confirmation that the passport was sent to IRCC and even attached to the file. The officer simply ignored it. As always - "to be continued ..."
Oleksandra Melnykova, Canadian Immigration and Refugee Consultant.
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