CSQ and its importance in gaining PR in Quebec

Every province requires people who will bring monetary as well as social benefits to the entireterritory, hence Quebec chooses its own immigrants.

The Canadian Federal government along with the Quebec Government came up with a program called “Quebec Skilled Worker Program”. The purpose of the program is to let educated & trained professionals be a part of the Province of Quebec & work there as skilled workers. All the individuals have to go through an official process & gain points. After the process is completed, they are provided with a CSQ (Quebec Selection Certificate) that later on, they can use to gain permanent residency. The acquisition of CSQ is necessary if one wants to settle in Quebec. An individual’s past training, age, knowledge in terms of language, financial self-sustenance etc., are major factors that are considered by the officers while allocating points.

Today we talk about a recent federal court decision regarding this:

The Applicant, Mr. David Alfonzo Blanco Carerro, is a citizen of Venezuela. He landed in Montréal, Québec in May 2008 as a temporary resident. The applicant held the position of diplomatic representative for Venezuela to the International Civil Aviation Organization. In 2010, he was granted a Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ). He then put in his papers for permanent residency under the territory of Québec’s Skilled Worker program with his family, including a wife and a daughter. The Applicant went under medical and criminal history screenings at the request of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in between 2012 to 2017. He also had to go through a sequence of interviews & inquiries with the Intelligence committee. Even after all this, the application for permanent residency wasn’t approved. (The whole process went on for about 6 years).

After all these years & the hindrance that was caused, the applicant chose to approach a prosecutor & filed several requests to access his personal information with IRCC and the CBSA. The data exhibited that the officers had concerns about the applicant’s military duty in Venezuela, his possible involvement in the 1992 political coup, and his job at the General Sectoral Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services in Venezuela between 2003 and 2005. (In cases involving political & security concerns, delays are usually normal).

After an investigation, in April 2018, the CPC-Ottawa Processing Center transferred his PR application to a Canadian Visa Office located in Mexico. The Mexican visa officer mentioned in his report that the applicant’s daughter had been refused CSQ for financial reasons and that the Applicant did not intend to settle in Québec, which was untrue. This response by the visa officer caused further delay in the entire process.

While the entire process was unnecessary delayed with no conclusion being agreed, the applicant at the time was paying legal fees which caused financial difficulties for the applicant & his family.

The applicant filed for a judicial review seeking approval of his permanent residency application & reasons as to why the unnecessary delay was being caused. He also asked for compensation for the legal fees he had paid to date, also known as solicitor-client costs, because of the postponement. The court approved his application for judicial review & the permanent residency application was forwarded to another Visa officer for reconsideration. The applicant was also granted the legal-costs that were to be paid for by the respondent.

In short, certain PR applications may take longer to get processed which can surely cause distress & disappointment in individuals, but IRCC is speeding up the entire process to provide ease & relief to the applicants.