Please prepare a Memorandum of Law with respect to the fact situation below.

The client's name is Amina Nehir Diaz. Amina is a 31-year old citizen of Canada. While visiting Barbados a couple of years ago, she met and fell in love with a 31-year old bandleader, Geraldo Diaz. They were married at the Bridgetown City Hall in a simple ceremony held on June 12, 2015.

Amina is an individual of financial means and, initially, she desired to live in Barbados with Geraldo while he pursued his music career. However, they decided to move to Canada.Amina offered to sponsor Geraldo for permanent residence status.

Amina flew back to Canada about a week after the marriage. Geraldo accompanied her and entered Canada as a visitor.A couple of weeks later, Geraldo returned to Barbados.Amina immediately filed an application to sponsor Geraldo as a permanent resident, and Geraldo filed his application for permanent residence from Barbados.

Thinking that it was a simple process, Amina did not retain the services of an immigration consultant or a lawyer. ]'

A few weeks later, Amina learned that she was pregnant with Geraldo's child.She and Geraldo were both very excited.

Unbeknownst to Amina, Geraldo had a criminal conviction in Barbados about twelve years before on a fraud-related offence.If Geraldo had been convicted of this offence in Canada, he would have been liable to a maximum prison term of seven years.His sentence in Barbados was 3 years in prison which he completed in February 2006.

In addition, while in Canada after their marriage, Geraldo was charged by the Toronto Police with two indictable offences for which the maximum penalty was 8 years. Geraldo had apparently become involved in a scheme with some former Cuban nationals to fraudulently re-label Peruvian cigars as Cuban and to sell them to unsuspecting buyers.Amina did not know about these charges at the time of filing her sponsorship application.

Geraldo's application for permanent residence was denied by the IRB on the basis of criminality relating to both the charges in Toronto and the conviction in Barbados.

Subsequent to the application being turned down, the charges in Toronto against Geraldo were withdrawn (i.e., dropped) without the case ever going to court.Consequently, Geraldo does not have a criminal conviction or criminal record in Canada.The charges were dropped because Geraldo apparently had agreed to co-operate with the police and to act as an informant against his co-conspirators.In exchange for this, the police asked the Crown Attorney to withdraw the charges.

Questions:

1.We want to know whether there is a right under the legislation and regulations to appeal the denial of Gerardo's application for permanent resident status.Would the answer be the same if Gerardo's application had been filed in Canada?No case law on this point is required.

2.We want to determine if a criminal conviction in Barbados for an offence for which the convicted person is liable to a maximum prison term of seven years is a basis under the legislation for a permanent residence application to be denied.No case law on this point is required.

3.If a criminal conviction in Barbados, as described in Issue 2 above is a basis for denying a permanent residence application, is there any provision in the Act that would still enable the application to be granted in Geraldo's case?No case law on this point is required.