 Hi everybody, today I wanted to make a video on humanitarian and compassionate applications. This is an application that is an exceptional application under Canadian immigration law. It's an application for foreign nationals who are in Canada and who don't meet the requirements of other immigration applications. For example, economic immigration applications or sponsorships, work permits or study permits. And sometimes some people do not qualify for those applications anymore because they have been in Canada out of status for some time due to various reasons. They didn't renew their paperwork. Somebody made a mistake in giving them bad advice. They got confused. They let the time run out and it could be a lot of different reasons. So sometimes people travel to Canada on visitor status or they come and make a refugee claim and they're refused but then they end up staying here. A lot of that is happening in Canada right now. You could see that in the news or they do other applications thinking they're qualifying and then they get refused. Ultimately all of this leads to people, foreign nationals being in Canada without an illegal status. Some leave and then some stay in Canada for some time either because they build a life here for themselves. A lot of them they don't want to go back to their country for different reasons. Some people get married and have children and now their children are Canadian and going to school. Some people might have certain health issues. I have a lot of clients that are, for example, I do agency applications for elderly parents who don't have anybody back home who are taking care of them and then become, for example, let's say to visit their children here and then they become very dependent about their children. So now they're older and their children here or one child here or one person here is the one person caring for them so they end up staying and it's impossible or it could be very difficult for them to go back home where they're going to be alone and no one's going to take care of them. So agency applications, applicants are very diverse and it can be a lot of different situations. Every situation is unique. I would say there's no two agency applicants that I've seen that are the same. The facts are it could be very very different. So if you came to Canada whatever reason or you were in Canada and now you're at a status and you've been in Canada for a long time this is not an application for people that have been here a couple of weeks or a couple of months. It's really has to be some time usually it's a couple of years. We could do an application if you have been here a short period of time but it's really going to depend on the facts. For example, for an elderly parents who's being taken care of that could be a situation where if you haven't been here that long we could look into the option of a humanitarian application but usually it's for people that have been here some time and they're really integrated. They are integrated into Canadian society. They're established here. They have friends. They may or may not have family but they've developed a network of friends. For example, they're part of a community, a temple or a church or a spiritual organization. They're working. They're involved in things that every Canadian usually is doing. These are facts that the officers are going to look at when assessing humanitarian and compassion application. The officer is also going to look at what is the hardship if this person were to return to their home country at this point. Is it going to be extremely difficult for them? Is it going to be very very hard so there's a compassionate and empathetic view of the application that is done by the officer? Now not all officers are able to apply the proper test but this is why as lawyers we try our best to submit really really strong applications to really demonstrate that this is a person that's going to suffer if they go back home. So we demonstrate that through photos, through reference letters, through documents, through our submission letter. So we put information about what the person has been doing in Canada. What are the people that are going to be impacted if this person has to all of a sudden leave? And if this person goes back to their home country, are they going to suffer? Are they going to be able to reintegrate their community over there or is there no longer a community that's going to support them? Are they going to have financial hardship? I have some clients here who work here and send money abroad to their children or adoptive children or nieces and nephews or people that are dependent on them or parents or siblings that have maybe mental health issues. So the fact that they're here is very important because they're maintaining and sustaining the life of other people outside Canada. So that's very important and we can show that with the money transfers, with information, with affidavits and reference letters. So it's something, an agency application is something that looks at all of the components of an applicant and different facts around the story. But it's very important that if you are considering a humanitarian application that you really consult with an expert representative, a lawyer to really say, okay, this is the story, this is what I'm going through, this is what I'm feeling, this is my life, and what are my options? Would a humanitarian make sense? You know, sometimes I see students that come here on a study permit, they're 20, 21 years old, they don't go to school, they drop out and then they come to my office and say, I want to apply for humanitarian application and they've been here like six months, eight months. That's not, that's not what a humanitarian application is for. It's really an exception that was created in the law to really help people that are suffering, that could suffer if they leave and that are established here and they have a life here. And they're living a life here that any other permanent resident or Canadian is living. So it's very important to look at these details because we can't just submit an application without thinking about these things. Once we apply, it takes some time for the officer to open the file to look at it and if you do have a refusal on your application, humanitarian, then removal proceedings can start and it could cause even more hardship for these people. So it's really important for the applicant himself, herself to really come forward with all the facts, but it's very important for lawyers and representatives to ask the right questions to make sure that these applicants are qualifying for this application. Thank you and see you next time.