If you are facing deportation from Canada, there are options available to help you delay the process or even have the deportation order overturned.
One such option is filing a request for a deferral of removal with an enforcement officer with the Intelligence and Enforcement Branch. The deferral officer may review your application to delay (or defer) your removal if you can provide a good reason for your removal to be delayed at this time.
For instance, if you have children who need to finish the school year, or you need to have a medical procedure or you have an application for sponsorship or on humanitarian grounds and you are awaiting the decision. A deferral may be granted in these types and in other circumstances.
If the deferral is accepted, that could allow you to stay in Canada for several more months while you seek more permanent ways to remain in Canada. If it is refused, you can ask the Federal Court to review this decision by filing a judicial review.
Once you have an application in the Federal Court, (any judicial review), you can do an application to stay (stop) your removal from Canada. A stay of deportation is often granted when there is a likelihood of success with an ongoing application before the Federal Court.
This is because you must prove that there is a serious issue in your application. Then, you must also prove that you would suffer irreparable harm if you had to leave Canada. This can be proven if you can show that you would face harm if deported.
Harm can take on many forms – you may face physical harm from someone persecuting you, you may face harm because of your physical or mental health, you may face harm because of the adverse country conditions in your country of origin. All of these and other factors are relevant to whether the Federal Court should stop your deportation.
You will also need to provide evidence to support your application. This may include letters from medical professionals, supporting documentation from community organizations, and any relevant personal documents. If you face deportation and want to apply for a deferral or stay, you must first have a removal date.
Once you receive a removal date, you must act quickly to contact a lawyer to assist you because if you do not file your deferral or stay in a timely manner, you may not receive a decision before you have to leave.
These applications are often done on an emergency basis and because of that some lawyers charge a lot of money. It is not unusual for a lawyer to charge 8 – 12,000 dollars. However, unless your case is very complicated, you really shouldn’t pay more than 4,500 – 7,000 dollars depending on whether you want to do a deferral request or a stay of deportation, or both.
More money does not mean better representation. At Lewis & Associates, we charge a reasonable fee based on the amount of work we have to do; we do not charge a fee based on what we can get a client to pay.
For a deferral application or a stay of removal or deportation, it is highly recommended that you seek the assistance of a knowledgeable and experienced lawyer to help you with the process. Though both are complicated and sometimes difficult applications, you can certainly be successful in many circumstances, and seeking a deferral of removal or a stay of deportation may be your only option to remain in the country.
We know how important these applications are to our clients and we work very hard to succeed so that you can stay in Canada and avoid removal.