When You Should Fire Your Representative
Four Foreign Students from India decided to save on accommodation costs by all moving in together. After graduation one man and a woman who had become boyfriend & girlfriend decided to move in together once employed at a more luxurious residence.
The Lady applied for permanent residency, received an ITA and became a permanent resident. The male now on a PGWP finally got the nerve up to say, “Will You Marry Me”. Once married they sought out an authorized representative to submit their spousal sponsorship application.
They lived in Mississauga, so they found a company called AKRAMI & ASSOCIATES that is in Mississauga as well. They were looking for a Permanent Residency Visa and that company’s website is www.thevisa.ca When they visited the offices of Akrami & Associates there were impressed by all the degrees and membership certificates all over the walls.
They were introduced to a Lawyer who would be submitting their application. They were asked to send in all documents that would prove their relationship but never were given any examples. That Lawyer who is member of the Law Society of Ontario got the applicant and the sponsor to sign a Use of Representative form IMM 5476 before submitting their spousal sponsorship application on March 23rd, 2019.
· Medical examination of the applicant/husband was completed on October 18th, 2019.
· Sponsor approval letter received on December 2nd, 2019
IRCC sent a second letter on December 2nd, 2019, stating the Lawyer was NOT an authorized representative even though she was a member of the Law Society of Ontario because her status with the LSO was “Not Practicing Law”!
The head of Akrami and Associates is one Shabnam Akrami her LinkedIn profile gives little information as to the fact that she is not a Lawyer but an regulated Canadian immigration Consultant. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shabnam-akrami-712858a7/?originalSubdomain=ca
When the sponsor informed Shabnam AKRAMI that their representative she assigned to them was NOT AUTHORIZED they were asked to sign another Use of Representative form IMM 5476 in late December 2019 with Shabnam Akrami acting as their Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC).
Starting in February of 2020 the applicant and the sponsor kept asking Akrami & Associates what is happening with their file since it had almost been a year of processing. They got told to just wait. Every month it was just wait. When asked if they had written IRCC to ask why the delay the sponsor was told of course.
The sponsors father became ill in the summer of 2020 and still no information as to what was happening with them was provided by Akrami and Associates. The sponsor then went to her Member of Parliament to find out what was the reason for the delay and did not receive a clear response since her MP confirmed that Shabnam AKRAMI was a member of ICCRC a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant.
The sponsor applied to obtain her GCMS notes to see if she could find out herself why Shabnam AKRAMI of Akrami and Associates could not tell her what the reason for the delay in her file was.
· GCMS notes received on May 27th, 2021, and the sponsor found out that the replacement IMM 5476 Use of Representative form submitted by RCIC Shabnam AKRAMI as per a case specific enquiry according to the GCMS notes was “Incomplete and Unreadable”! It was also mentioned in the GCMS notes that IRCC had informed Shabnam AKRAMI that the IMM 5476 form was unacceptable, but no replacement IMM 5476 was ever resubmitted.
· Due to items submitted at the request of the original representative which were not a required document the GCMS notes stated that the sponsor may have misrepresented a material fact when she applied for permanent residency.
The Sponsor realized that from March 23rd, 2019, until June 1st, 2021, her and her husband had NO IMMIGRATION REPRESENTATIVE AT ALL!
What had they paid for?
They retained me in the middle of June 2021. I submitted two separate Use of Representatives forms via Case Specific Enquiry webform. Three weeks later I received confirmation that I had been recorded as Counsel of Record on their files. I then sent IRCC a letter explaining the innocent mistake on the sponsors original application and asked that they land the applicant/husband based on IRPA 3 (1) (d) reunification of family.
When IRCC says normal processing for an In-Land Spousal Sponsorship is one year and two years have passed. Consider firing your representative if they have can’t prove they have communicated with IRCC about your file.
Problem fixed and Applicant to be Landed all within one month.
