Canada Immigration Case-law Sandhu v. Canada, IMMIGRATION — Selection and admission — Sponsorship

Judgement of this case: Click Here!
IMMIGRATION — Selection and admission — Sponsorship — Sponsor applied to sponsor his Indian spouse for permanent residency — Application was denied by visa officer on basis of concern that marriage was not genuine and had been entered into primarily to acquire immigration status — Board upheld that decision on basis of its own credibility concerns — Sponsor applied for judicial review — Application granted; matter to be redetermined on merits by different decision-maker — Board’s assessment of evidence was surprisingly shallow and most of its credibility determinations were unsound and not supported by penitentiary record — Board’s credibility concerns were limited to four discrete areas, not one of which touched directly on genuineness of relationship or its primary purpose — Determination of whether person’s primary purpose for marriage is to obtain immigration status necessarily includes assessment of genuineness of relationship — Two conjunctive aspects of s. 4(1) of Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (Can.) are linked and must be considered together — There is also nothing inherently objectionable or suspicious about desire to seek out Canadian spouse in arranged marriage with view to family unification — Where both parties have bona fide commitment to long-term maintenance of marital relationship, it will be rare that primary purpose of marriage can be reasonably found to be to acquire immigration status — Primary purpose of bona fide marriage has to be long-term commitment to relationship — Collateral advantage of gaining immigration status would be secondary to that marital commitment