In Express Entry, no supporting documentation is required for non-mandatory factors, Amiri v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration).
| Court(s) Database | Federal Court Decisions |
| Date | 2022-06-20 |
| Neutral citation | 2022 FC 929 |
| File numbers | IMM-8956-21 |
In a recent ruling on June 20, 2022, the Federal Court affirmed that in Express Entry, applicants are not required to submit supporting documents for factors for which they do not require points, and that IRCC's return of this immigration application was unreasonable.
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Here's the story of Amiri's appeal to the federal court:
[1] Ms. Amiri filed a petition for judicial review regarding the denial of her permanent resident application submitted under the Canadian Experience Class program through the Express Entry system. The court approved her petition for the following reasons.
[2] Ms. Amiri first submitted an " expression of interest" through the Express Entry system. She then received an invitation to apply. She was informed that she needed to achieve a minimum of 368 points to receive an invitation in the draw.
[3] An Immigration Officer denied Ms. Amiri’s application for incompleteness under section 10 of the Refugee and Immigration Protection Regulations, SOR/2002-227, because her husband’s educational certificate assessment [ECA] was not provided for immigration purposes.
[4] Ms. Amiri argued that her husband's ECA was not required because she did not need points related to her husband's education to rank above the minimum points for an invitation in the relevant draw. She was able to calculate that she had 370 points without the points related to her husband's education.
[5] The Court agrees with Ms. Amiri. The requirements for applications in the Express Entry system are in the Ministerial Guide to the Express Entry System, published in the Canada Gazette and available on the IRCC website. These Guides are issued under section 10.3 of the Refugee and Immigration Protection Act, SC 2001, c 27. They distinguish between eligibility criteria, which in section 5 are essentially the criteria of the relevant category and components of the Comprehensive Ranking System [CRS], which essentially scores applicants based on factors such as age, education, language skills and work experience.
[6] In the case of Ms. Amiri, section 17 of the Guidelines points for the educational qualifications of the applicant's common-law spouse. Subsection 17 (3) states that if the educational qualification is outside Canada, it must be certified by an “educational qualification equivalence assessment” or ECA issued by a Minister-designated organization. However, section 17 does not require eligibility. One only needs to comply with subsection 17 (3) if one wishes to receive additional points.
[7] In this regard, there is no problem with Ms. Amiri being invited to apply based on her profile including her husband's educational qualifications. With the minimum score required in the relevant draw, Ms. Amiri would be invited anyway.
[8] The Court also noted that a page from the IRCC website, reproduced in Ms. Amiri's application file, stated that the ECA was a "mandatory document (if applicable)". The Court understood this to mean that only applicants intending to request points based on academic qualifications would be required to submit an ECA. Ms. Amiri did not intend to, because she did not need those points.
[9] Therefore, it is unreasonable for the officer to refuse Ms. Amiri's application solely because she has not submitted a valid ECA for her husband. Having found that Ms. Amiri has not submitted a valid ECA for her husband, the officer must determine whether the remaining documents supporting her application demonstrate sufficient eligibility to participate and demonstrate a score above the minimum for the draw she is participating in.
[10] For these reasons, the court approved Amiri's application.
