Aslanyan v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2017 FC 133

Strickland J., 3 February 2017, online at: http://canlii.ca/t/gxbpq

Decision under review: Refusal of overseas application for work permit as a spouse of a study permit holder

For Applicant: Aleksei Grachev (Toronto)

For Respondent: Tamrat Gebeyehu, Dept. of Justice (Toronto)

The Applicant’s spouse was in Canada on a study permit, and he applied for an open work permit. The Court agreed that he had made submissions with his application – although less clearly than he could have done - that he wanted an open work permit to allow him to work in Canada intermittently during his occasional visits to his family here (paras. 6 and 8). The Applicant had also submitted letters of support – essentially corroborative and character references – as well as submitting and providing evidence that through his job in Russia he was the family’s sole breadwinner, and furthermore that he was the principle carer for his dependent mother and could only be replaced for short periods of time (paras. 11-12).

None of the evidence provided was referenced in the Officer’s “reasons”, which were the FOSS/GCMS notes (para. 13).

The Respondent argued that the Applicant was clearly planning to leave his employment in Russia, as the Officer had determined, because his leave letter stated he had 28 days but his work permit application was for two years (para. 14). The Court found that in the context of the whole application, the Applicant clearly intended to work on-and-off during his visits to Canada, which would be made occasionally over a two-year period (para. 15). The Officer ignored evidence and the decision was thus overturned.