Class-action lawsuit targets visa fees

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Subject: Class-action lawsuit targets visa fees
  I just found this at the Vancouver Sun:
I agree with the Coquitlam man, I wonder if you do.




Class-action lawsuit targets visa fees
Richard Foot, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, January 05, 2008
The Federal Court of Canada has given the green light to a national class-action lawsuit launched by a Coquitlam man against the federal Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

The lawsuit claims the department makes a profit on visa application fees, and has illegally raked in more than $700 million over the past decade from new immigrants. It is the first time in the history of the Federal Court that a contested class action has been certified -- or allowed to proceed as a class claim, says Richard Kurland, the Vancouver lawyer spearheading the matter.

The lawsuit alleges that since 1998 the government has been overcharging on the fees it collects from people applying for immigration visas, whether they are visitors to Canada, foreign workers or students, or people seeking permanent residency.


Federal departments are forbidden, under the Financial Administration Act, to charge any more in fees than the amount they need to recoup the cost of their services. The Act also requires departments to have mechanisms in place to ensure that profits aren´t made off public services.

The case is based on government documents obtained through the access to information process.

Using them, the lawsuit estimates that roughly 12 million such visa applications have been processed since 1998 and that at least two million Canadian residents deserve money back from Ottawa.

The difference between the high number of applications and the fewer number of affected people stems from the fact that many immigrants or foreigners filed more than one application over the past decade. Others, especially those on visitor visas, are no longer in Canada and, therefore, not included in the class.

Kurland says the Immigration Department has been "systematically violating" the law for years, in many cases charging more than double what it costs to process visa applications.

In one of a number of defences made in response to the lawsuit, federal lawyers have argued that the Financial Administration Act does not apply to the department.

Kurland suspects the government might have been boosting its immigration fees to fund enforcement activities at Canadian border posts. Even if that´s true, he says the law prohibits federal departments from using fees for one service to fund the costs of another.

"What I can´t understand is how these rules could not be followed year after year," he said Friday.

The representative plaintiff at the centre of the class action is Alan Hinton of Coquitlam. In 2003, Hinton paid a $75 fee to sponsor his Russian wife Irene to immigrate to Canada.

Calculations based on the department´s own documents show that the actual unit cost of that application was only $36.69, resulting in a $38.31 profit for Ottawa, the lawsuit says.

Kurland says some families, who have filed numerous applications over the past few years to sponsor relatives coming to Canada, could be owed hundreds if not thousands of dollars by the government.

Kurland´s colleague, Toronto lawyer Lorne Waldman, says the class action, if successful, could have an impact on governments of all levels across the country.

Officials at the Immigration Department did not respond Friday to a request for commen

[06-01-2008,18:37]
[***.58.187.94]
Dan Lea?o
(in reply to: Class-action lawsuit targets visa fees)
subsequent articles have suggested that the Government will prove its case that they don´t make money on the applications.

It will be interesting to watch.

[07-01-2008,02:50]
[***.121.220.199]
Sharon
(in reply to: Class-action lawsuit targets visa fees)
Previous Auditor General Reports on Immigrations Economic Componet has highlighted that there is no coralation between applications paid for and visas issued or refused.

Proving the cost factor will be really difficult but Law suits over processing times have been lost before.

Roy
www.cvimmigration.com

[07-01-2008,08:47]
[**.52.216.194]
Roy
(in reply to: Class-action lawsuit targets visa fees)
Here is an example of bad advice to sue.

http://www.metronews.ca/column.aspx?id=84354

Roy
www.cvimmigration.com

[07-01-2008,09:00]
[**.52.216.194]
Roy
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