Aurora66

Hello,
My son came to visit us this week from the UK. We live in B.C. I am married to a Canadian citizen and came over to the UK to visit for a few months and then adjusted my status and applied for my p.r. outland. It is still only showing on the system in London as application received, even though it was sent over a year ago.
The problem is that when my son came to visit, (he has been studying and living with my family in the UK) he was detained for over 2 hours by an immigration officer, who asked him lots of questions about his intentions for visiting Canada. The officer rang us too and asked my questions about our status in Canada etc. Our son missed his flight and had to spend the night in the airport until the next morning. He is only 18 and was a bit apprehensive but he did get to us the next morning.
Before he was allowed to come through customs, the officer warned my son that if he overstayed his visitor visa, that he would issue an arrest warrant to the local RCMP and that he would be arrested and deported. I would like to know if that is true-what if he wanted to stay on and keep renewing his visitor visa as we are doing, after all he is on the P.R. application with us. Can he be arrested or was the officer just trying to scare our son, please help!

Thanks so much

Former Lancastrian

Legally anyone who overstays and has no legal status in Canada can have an arrest warrant issued against them so that part is true.
Is it used as a scare tactic or a statement of fact that is up to you to decide.
Without knowing what transpired during the interview and remember there is always 3 sides to a story (his version, the officers version and the truth) its hard to say what actually transpired and what questions were asked and answers given. If you feel that this was unprofessional then your son can always make a complaint that will be actioned by using this link and giving precise details of what transpired
Compliments, Comments and Complaints

I won't comment any further as it would just be speculation on my part. He can certainly apply to extend his visit if PR status isn't received in the near future by using the CIC online link
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/extend-stay.asp

Aurora66

Thanks for your reply. I am seriously considering complaining. I understand about overstaying the visa, but his ticket to return is Oct 25th and he has a 6 month visitor visa. Also, we have our pr in and it is going through so why the harsh treatment? I understand about there being different sides, but I know my son, he is very quiet and unassuming, and I know he was intimidated by the officer, besides, we have brought up all our children to be respectful of authority. I cant see how he can lawfully say that if my son doesn't return on the date of his ticket that he will have a warrant issued because his status couldn't possibly be overstayed by then.
Again, thanks so much for your advice.

Aurora66

I just realised that in my first message, I didn't say that the officer told my son if he didn't return by the ticket date, which is October 25th this year, that a warrant would be issued. And so he would still have legal status because of the 6 month on his visa. So that's what I am confused about basically, because he only arrived in August, seems a bit harsh, Thanks.

Former Lancastrian

If the officer just stamped his passport and did not issue a visitor record with a specific expiry date then the 6 month rule applies.

Aurora66

Yes, so he would only have to leave officially by the 1st Feb if he was taking the 6 month rule into account. No, he did not have his passport stamped with a specific date, the officer just told my son if he didn't leave by Oct 25th he would have a warrant issued. It just seems very odd. I am wondering now if my son misunderstood...

Former Lancastrian

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a knock on the door on the 26th
As long as he had the passport stamped the 6 months starts from the day of entry. CBSA don't write expiry dates unless documents are issued well legally that is.

Aurora66

Thanks for clarifying, I was really upset and the fact that my son had to miss his flight and spend the night in the airport when we already have our p.r. in, we have our visitor visa up to date and none of us have ever overstayed, well you can imagine how we felt, and to say he was going to get arrested on the 26th was the top hat!

christmasoompa

Nothing to do with your son's experience, but if you applied for PR 'outland' a year ago and haven't heard a thing yet then that's very unusual. Have you had sponsor approval? If so, when was that?

Is your son included on your application for PR? When does he turn 19?

Aurora66

Our application is in London. We applied in July last year and got sponsor approval and we have a UCI number, but it is still only listed as 'application received'. I have emailed the London office, in June and they said they were working on applications received in September last year so should be working on ours soon. To be honest, I find CIC to be totally incompetent. The worst thing is they don't seem to be accountable to anyone. All our children are included on the PR application, including this one, he turns 19 in November this year. We applied for him to have a study permit last year and sent all the info. They refused it saying we hadn't included his passport details on the application. I rang CIC and explained that we had proof we had sent the details they needed, and the agent said we could appeal. We appealed and sent them a screen shot of the passport info from our electronic application, but received an email from CIC saying we could only appeal if we engaged a Canadian lawyer. So we were refused the permit and we lost the money. We have done everything correctly and we still have these things happen to us. We applied for PR in 2007 and it was a lot quicker and a lot smoother than this time around. We didn't go through with the PR last time as my husband had to relocate to the US with his job. There is just no justification that I can see for holding an 18 year old for over 2 hours who is in the system as being on a PR application, has been over to Canada fairly recently and not overstayed and has a return ticket. And then he misses his flight and has to stay in an airport overnight. Not justified in my opinion. So disappointed in Canada's attitude towards us and I know countless others. We spoke to our mla's immigration specialist when the study permit fiasco happened and it is something she hears all the time; her opinion was that CIC are seriously out of control. Anyway, we hope to hear something about our PR application soon, I would really like to go to work for one thing! Thanks for your the replies, I really do appreciate them ..

christmasoompa

Ah, good.

Of course they are, they're accountable to the Canadian people, as all government departments are.

Never, ever phone CIC and/or rely on their info. You wouldn't have spoken to an 'agent', you'll have spoken to a call centre worker reading from a script and with no immigration knowledge. I swear that half the time they just make answers up to get you off the phone.

Even as a PR, there's no right to enter Canada and you can still be refused entry.

Unfortunately, playing devil's advocate, I can see why CBSA were checking him out. The fact that he's got a PR application in the works and that the rest of his family are in Canada goes against him, not for him. I'm sure he wouldn't overstay, but they don't know that, and he's a much higher risk of overstaying than a 'normal' traveller.

Immi officers are there to ensure that nothing or nobody enters Canada that shouldn't, and it sounds like they were just doing their job that day - although your son was the unfortunate one that had a bit of a tough time because of it.

Aurora66

I know that CIC are meant to be accountable, but in practice, it is another matter. I agree ringing CIC can be a thankless task. Once, we were refused information because they said that my husband was not giving them his correct birthdate-so frustrating. And as for the situation yesterday, we have had our sons visit us many times since we have been here, they do seem to pick on the boys when they are travelling alone here, and it has never gone this far. I fail to see how he could be a risk, taking into account all the information about this incident. Certainly detaining a UK citizen who is obeying the law for over 2 hours would seem to be extreme and unnecessary to me. And not just because he is my son either. I didn't mention earlier, but he has only just finished cancer treatment and is on meds. They knew this and still made him miss his flight, no- I wont defend the indefensible.