Canadian Marriage Fraud Victim Society (CMFVS)

Petition

To the Honourable Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and the Honourable Minister of Public Safety;

We the undersigned citizens of Canada draw the attention of the Honourable Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and the Honourable Minister of Public Safety to the following:

THAT thousands of Citizens of Canada and Permanent Residents of Canada are being deceived by foreign nationals into entering marriages of convenience for the purpose of acquiring permanent residence in Canada for the foreign nationals, and

THAT visa officers at Canadian posts abroad are not always able to determine that these marriages fall within the provisions of section 4 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations and issue visas to many of these deceptive foreign nationals; and

THAT other countries, namely the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany and many others grant periods of conditional establishment to spouses of their nationals;

THEREFORE your petitioners call upon the Honourable Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to cause to be placed before the Governor in Council amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (the Regulations) to impose terms and conditions upon foreign nationals landing in Canada as members of the family class under paragraph 117(1)(a) that will not be removed until they have cohabited with their sponsor for a period of three years following their landing in Canada; or they have satisfied an officer that they left the relationship by reason of misconduct by the sponsor;

AND that the Honourable Minister of Citizenship and Immigration direct his officials, and that Honourable Minister of Public Safety direct the Canada Border Service Agency to dedicate additional resources to the investigation of cases of deceptive marriages and expeditious removal proceedings where those investigations uncover misrepresentation.