March 19, 2014
Judicial Review for Chinese Millionaire Investors!
A group of 95 Chinese millionaires have been granted leave to seek a Judicial Review in the matter of their dropped applications under Canada’s Federal Immigrant Investor Program. Citizenship and Immigration Canada closed this program to new applications in 2012, and in February 2014 announced the intent to terminate the program along with the existing backlog of 65,000 pending applications. The applicants will be challenging a previous Federal Court decision that found there was insufficient evidence to support their claim that their visa applications were not being processed. After the Minister’s February announcement that applications would be terminated retroactively, it is clear that there is no intention to process these pending applications before the program is permanently cancelled in June 2014. The Judge, Anne Mactavish, allowed the 95 cases to be consolidated for an initial hearing in Toronto in April. The applicants were granted leave for judicial review of “the decisions of undisclosed persons made on unknown dates not to honour the pledge to assess and finalise within the foreseeable future the applicants’ applications for permanent residence”.
To read more about Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s decision to eliminate the Federal Immigrant Investor Program, and the Federal Entrepreneur Program please see our previous blog.