Case #1:

Indira is a Canadian citizen who was born and raised in Indonesia. She immigrated to Canada six years ago when she was sponsored by her husband who is a Canadian Citizen. Indira is now a Canadian citizen and has a 2-year-old son. The couple reside with their son in a single-family home in Nanaimo BC.

Indira's husband works full-time as a pilot. Due to the nature of his job, he is often away from home 2 to 3 days a week. Indira also works part-time and she is having difficulty in managing a household and taking care of her young son as she has no family support in Canada.

Her husband's parents live with their daughter and her family in Ontario and help with the care of their three children. Indira is extremely close to her mother whom she considers her best friend.

Four years ago Indira sponsored her parents under the family class. Her 14-year-old sister was included in the application as a dependent child of her parents. Indira was looking forward to her parents and sister coming to Canada that would bring her the support she needed to help take care of her 2-year-old son. Indira also wanted to pursue a full-time job.

Indira's husband signed the application as co-sponsor and the main income provider for the household. At the time of application, their combined income was enough to meet the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) criteria. Her husband had an excellent history of steady income.

The sponsorship application was processed at CPC Mississauga and transferred to Jakarta two and a half years later. Six months later the Canadian visa office in Jakarta requested a re-assessment of their income based on new information that they had received. They were asked to provide records of their earnings and the most recent tax assessment in the last 12 months preceding the date of the request.

Unfortunately, Indira's husband was unemployed for six months during this period when he had lost his job. This resulted in the couple being unable to meet the LICO requirements.

The visa office refused the application based on the sponsor's inability to meet the minimum income requirement.

Indira decided to appeal the decision and is requesting H&C considerations because of her personal circumstances and also the fact that her husband is now working for a new company for the past year and a half. They can once again meet the current LICO criteria. They are also concerned about the long waiting times that applications for parents are taking in Jakarta and Indira and her parents are very distressed about this situation.

Let's do some role-playing in our discussion!

• Pretend you are Indira's representative and composed a submission for the IAD full hearing on her behalf. Your submission should try to convince the member toallowthe appeal on H&C grounds. Post this submission in the discussion forum.
• In responding to the above, counteract the submission of another classmate by pretending to be the Minister's counsel. In this response I should try to convince the board member todismissthe appeal.