Law Times

Page 8 March 7, 2016 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com FOCUS ON Immigration Law THE MOST COMPLETE DIRECTORY OF ONTARIO LAWYERS, LAW FIRMS, JUDGES NEW EDITION Perfectbound Published December each year On subscription $80 One time purchase $83 L88804-764 Multiple copy discounts available Plus applicable taxes and shipping & handling. (prices subject to change without notice) Visit carswell.com or call 1.800.387.5164 for a 30-day no-risk evaluation With more than 1,400 pages of essential legal references, Ontario Lawyer's Phone Book is your best connection to legal services in Ontario. Subscribers can depend on the credibility, accuracy and currency of this directory year after year. More detail and a wider scope of legal contact information for Ontario than any other source: • Over 27,000 lawyers listed • Over MBXȮSNTBOEDPSQPSBUFPGȮDFTMJTUFE • 'BYBOEUFMFQIPOFOVNCFSTFNBJMBEESFTTFTPGȮDFMPDBUJPOTBOEQPTUBMDPEFT Includes lists of: • Federal and provincial judges • Federal courts, including a section for federal government departments, boards and commissions • Ontario courts and services, including a section for provincial government ministries, boards and commissions • Small claims courts • The Institute of Law Clerks of Ontario • Miscellaneous services for lawyers ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY! Untitled-2 1 2016-03-02 10:09 AM Express Entry online system full of glitches, say lawyers BY MICHAEL MCKIERNAN For Law Times T echnical problems with online services at Immigra- tion, Refugees and Citizen- ship Canada are threatening to overshadow the Express Entry revolution in immigration, ac- cording to lawyers in the field. The new immigration system, launched in January of last year, uses a points system to rank pro- spective immigrants to Canada, then matches them to employ- ers and provinces, with only the highest scorers in a particular draw invited to apply for perma- nent residence. The f ledgling system has re- ceived mixed reviews thanks to its unpredictable points require- ments and bias towards applicants with a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment, but immi- gration lawyers seem to be united in their negative assessment of the online infrastructure designed to support Express Entry. Some of the problems are so bad that the Canadian Bar As- sociation's national immigration section has requested an emer- gency meeting with the federal ministry to discuss them. "There are parts of Express Entry that are good, and there are parts that work less well," says Evan Green, a partner at Toronto immigration boutique Green and Spiegel LLP. "The IT issues are huge," he adds. Green says filing can be de- layed on applications for "two to three days" simply because the online representative portal, which lawyers and immigration consultants use to fill out appli- cations and upload supporting documents on behalf of clients, is not working. "The portal comes in fits and spurts throughout the day. I have staff checking it regularly, and when it's up, you need to take that opportunity to do some data en- try before it fails again," he says. Any attempt to get infor- mation on the problems from the government is diverted to a 1-800-number helpline, where the response is never any more reassuring, Green says. "It's always the same: 'I'll make a note and someone will get back to you,'" he says. Ronalee Carey, an Ottawa- based immigration lawyer, says even when the representative portal is functional, it is often "painfully slow" or unreliable, with data disappearing from forms "like black magic." On one occasion, she accidentally deleted a client's entire travel history, one of the more time-consuming entries on the application, by clicking her mouse in the wrong spot during a particularly slow screen transition. "When the screen changed, it just happened to be hovering over the 'no travel history' button, and all 20 entries disappeared," she says. "Now I have to be really care- ful to make sure I keep my mouse way over to the right of the screen so it's not over something that could wipe out data. You would think it would be a simple fix to get a pop-up warning or some- thing that asks if you're sure you want to delete all this information from your form." The problems have begun af- fecting her fee estimates, Carey says, since it has become impos- sible to accurately assess how much of her time will be wasted due to technical difficulties be- yond her control. In other cases, the technical mishaps go beyond mere annoy- ance, says Carey. A glitch in the system caused another client of hers to receive an invitation to apply for permanent residence via the Federal Skilled Worker program rather than the Canadi- an Experience Class. The differ- ing documentary requirements for each program have left her client with a denial based on an incomplete application, but rec- tifying the mistake has proven problematic. Carey filled out a case-specific enquiry form to get answers from IRCC, but the current 30-day re- sponse time falls outside of the 15-day deadline to file for judi- cial review of the case in Federal Court. To keep her options open, Carey has had to file both on be- half of her client. Case review enquiry response times are one of the problems identified by the CBA's national immigration section as requiring immediate attention in its de- mand for an emergency meeting with IRCC officials, prompted by mounting member complaints. In his Jan. 15 letter, section chair- man Stéphane Duval added two more particularly pressing pro- cedural and client service issues: • Web form inquiries not being reviewed and/or forwarded to the office handling the case; • Applications filed via the repre- sentative portal having requests for additional documents to be submitted mid-processing, yet not opening ports for the docu- ments to be uploaded. Together, the problems have resulted in "numerous cases be- ing closed or refused" for incom- pleteness, despite the fact that the requested documents have been provided either via the on- line portal or through more old- fashioned methods, such as cou- riers or e-mail. "The additional documents are simply not being properly reviewed, noted, or matched up to the in-progress application," Duval writes. IRCC spokeswoman Nancy Caron said in an e-mailed state- ment that a meeting was sched- uled last week between the parties in response to the letter, which warns that the CBA is maintain- ing a database of further issues and examples to "illustrate the systemic issues" at the ministry for discussion at a later date. "In the meantime, people are out of work, damages are accru- ing, and there is no simple or expeditious way to resolve issues that stem from inefficiencies and problems with IRCC's tools and service options," reads the CBA letter, which ends on an optimis- tic note: "We understand from prior consultations and presentations at our national conference and Ottawa meetings that client ser- vice is a key initiative for your of- fice, and we would welcome the chance to work with you to re- solve these critical issues," Duval concludes. LT Ronalee Carey says there are significant problems with the online services at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

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