This advocacy assignment integrates substantive knowledge of the law developed in your introduction to administrative law (Modules 2 and 3) as well as advocacy skills introduced in Module 5 and practiced in your tutorials. This assignment is designed to simulate an in-land H&C interview with an Immigration Officer. In reality, in-person interviews for H&C applications are quite rare. However, for our purposes, it is a useful place to start. Subsequent GDipICL courses will introduce advocacy in more depth and before the IRB.

Case study

You are a newly licensed immigration consultant, working in a firm with others. Your firm has asked you to assist Amaka Joy Achebe with an inland application for permanent residence based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Ms. Achebe has already been interviewed and has provided heraffidavit. You will recognize this document as the one used for the Module 3 Tutorial. Make sure to utilize the facts presented in the affidavit in your oral submission.

For this assignment on oral advocacy, you will be asked to develop a persuasive oral argument in support of Ms. Achebe's H&C application based on the H&C factor hardship due to family violence. There are, in fact, other factors that are important to her application, but in this case, focus only on the element of family violence.

Your task for this assignment is to prepare a brief oral submission arguing your client's case for H&C considerations supported by a point-form written submission. No additional legal research is required to complete the Advocacy Assignment. Use the law and policy from the assigned course materials. Your submission will be assessed based on your communication and advocacy skills as well as your professionalism.

Following the guidance provided in Advocacy for Paralegals (pp. 105-110) as well as by Prof. Erik Knutsen in "Persuasive Oral Advocacy: The Role of Oral Submissions" (You'll find both sources in theOral Advocacypage of Module 5), draft a brief point-form written submission in advance of recording your submission to ensure you are fully prepared.

Keep the CREAC structure in mind as you prepare your notes. Even though this is an oral, not written, submission, the CREAC structure helps to keep you organized and clear in your presentation.

Your submission should include:

1. A brief opening statement that identifies your client's goal and provides an outline of your argument
2. A statement of the central legal issue and a brief summary of the relevant H&C factor that has been identified drawing from the relevant law
3. The legally relevant facts raised in your client's affidavit that support your argument
4. Your argument (including applying the law and policy that you know to the facts you have identified) as to the reasons the H & C exemption should be granted
5. A brief conclusion