Singh (Yadwinder) - requirement for a passport to be landed

Singh v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2010 FC 757

Decision of Justice de Montigny. The Applicant sought declatory relief and mandamus, where Citizenship and Immigration Canada had refused to confirm his status as a permanent resident because he did not personally have his passport available. He did not have his passport because it had been seized (the Applicant had a receipt) and appeared to have been lost. The Applicant faced the following catch-22: without a passport he could not regularize his status, and without regularized status he could not obtain a new Indian passport (paras. 5-6). When he did obtain a passport, his clearances had expired. When he received new clearances, a new inadmissibility issue arose. The Applicant successfully argued that he should have been landed in 1998, and that subsequent issues could not therefore bar his landing.