Class- action lawsuit targets visa fees

Class- action lawsuit targets visa fees - Vancouver Sun

The Federal Court of Canada has given the green light to a national
class- action lawsuit launched by a Coquitlam man against the federal
Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

The lawsuit claims the department makes a profit on
visa application fees, and has illegally raked in more than $ 700
million over the past decade from new immigrants. It is the first time
in the history of the Federal Court that a contested class action has
been certified — or allowed to proceed as a class claim, says Richard
Kurland, the Vancouver lawyer spearheading the matter.

The lawsuit alleges that since 1998 the government has been
overcharging on the fees it collects from people applying for
immigration visas, whether they are visitors to Canada, foreign
workers or students, or people seeking permanent residency.

Federal departments are forbidden, under the Financial Administration
Act, to charge a ny mo re i n fe e s t h a n t h e amount they need to
recoup the cost of their services. The Act also requires departments
to have mechanisms in place to ensure that profits aren't made off
public services.

The case is based on government documents obtained through the access
to information process.

Using them, the lawsuit estimates that roughly 12 million such visa
applications have been processed since 1998 and that at least two
million Canadian residents deserve money back from Ottawa.

The difference between the high number of applications and the fewer
number of affected people stems from the fact that many immigrants or
foreigners filed more than one application over the past decade.
Others, especially those on visitor visas, are no longer in Canada
and, therefore, not included in the class.

Kurland says the Immig ration Department has been " systematically
violating" the law for years, in many cases charging more than double
what it costs to process visa applications.

In one of a number of defences made in response to the lawsuit,
federal lawyers have argued that the Financial Administration Act does
not apply to the department.

Kurland suspects the government might have been boosting its
immigration fees to fund enforcement activities at Canadian border
posts. Even if that's true, he says the law prohibits federal
departments from using fees for one service to fund the costs of another.

" What I can't understand is how these rules could not be followed
year after year," he said Friday.

The representative plaintiff at the centre of the class action is Alan
Hinton of Coquitlam. In 2003, Hinton paid a $ 75 fee to sponsor his
Russian wife Irene to immigrate to Canada.

Calculations based on the department's own documents show that the
actual unit cost of that application was only $ 36.69, resulting in a
$ 38.31 profit for Ottawa, the lawsuit says.

Kurland says some families, who have filed numerous applications over
the past few years to sponsor relatives coming to Canada, could be
owed hundreds if not thousands of dollars by the government.

Kurland's colleague, Toronto lawyer Lorne Waldman, says the class
action, if successful, could have an impact on governments of all
levels across the country.

Officials at the Immigration Department did not respond Friday to a
request for comment.