Our immigration team includes Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCICs) who have lived this journey themselves. We handle every path to Canada, and every obstacle on it.
Lawyers and Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (CICC)
Work permits, permanent residence, sponsorship, refugee claims and appeals
Toronto
Immigration Work in the City
Toronto files cover the full range, but the pattern that recurs most is timing. Someone arrives with a permit expiring in six weeks, or a refusal letter with a deadline for judicial review, or a sponsorship that has been in process long enough that the sponsor's circumstances have changed. Immigration law is unusually unforgiving about dates, and most of the damage we see was done by waiting.
The second pattern is people who are already here and whose status is running out rather than people applying to come. Maintained status, restoration, bridging permits and the consequences of falling out of status are a different body of law from the application streams, and they are governed by much shorter clocks.
Where an application has been refused, the route forward depends on the decision maker. Some refusals carry an appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division. Others can only be challenged by application for leave and judicial review in the Federal Court, which is a review of the decision-making process rather than a fresh hearing on the merits.
Where these matters are heard
Federal Court applications for judicial review of immigration decisions are filed in the Toronto registry at 180 Queen Street West. Immigration and Refugee Board hearings for the Toronto area are held at 74 Victoria Street.
Everything in Immigration & Refugee
If your status is at risk, start here.
Grouped by situation. If your status is at risk, start with the first group.
Nothing matches that. Try a shorter word, or clear the box to see everything.
What We Handle
Practice Areas
Express Entry
Federal Skilled Worker, Canadian Experience Class, and Federal Skilled Trades programs. We maximise your CRS score and guide you through every stage.
Spousal & Family Sponsorship
Inland and outland sponsorship for spouses, common-law partners, dependent children and parents. We handle complex cases others decline.
Study Permits
Student visa applications, extensions, and post-graduation work permit (PGWP) transitions for students studying in Canada.
Work Permits
Employer-specific and open work permits, LMIA applications, intra-company transfers, and international agreements (CUSMA/USMCA).
Permanent Residence
Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP), Humanitarian & Compassionate applications, protected person status, and all pathways to PR.
Refusals & Appeals
Immigration refusals are not always the end. We review refusal letters, identify grounds for appeal, and represent clients at the Immigration Appeal Division.
Your Immigration Team
Licensed RCICs & Immigration Lawyers
Muhammad Junaid
RCIC | Immigration Advisor
Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant specialising in Express Entry, spousal sponsorship and permanent residence applications.
Sofia Hamayun
RCIC | Immigration Advisor
RCIC specialising in permanent residence, study permits and work permits. Fluent in English, Urdu and Pashto.
Junaid Abbasi
Managing Partner | Global Strategy
Advises on global business strategy and cross-border investment. Works alongside our licensed immigration lawyers and RCICs. or RCIC.
We believe you deserve straight answers, not vague promises. We will tell you what a consultation costs before you book.
My work permit expires soon and I have applied to extend. Can I keep working?
If the extension application was received before the permit expired, you may generally continue working under the same conditions while the decision is pending. If it was filed after expiry, you cannot, and restoration becomes the question instead.
My application was refused. Do I appeal or go to Federal Court?
It depends on the type of decision. Some refusals carry a right of appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division. Many do not, and the only route is leave and judicial review in the Federal Court, which has a short filing deadline.
How long do I have to challenge a refusal in Federal Court?
The deadlines are short and differ depending on whether the decision was made inside or outside Canada. This is the single most common way a viable case is lost, so the letter should be brought in as soon as it arrives.
Important Notice: Contacting us does not establish a solicitor-client relationship. Such a relationship is only formed when the firm has expressly confirmed in writing its agreement to act on your behalf.
Consultation Fees: The complimentary initial consultation is a brief introductory conversation to understand your situation and explain how we may be able to help. It does not include a review of your documents, and no legal advice is given during it. Lexaltico LLP charges a fee for substantive consultations, including civil litigation, criminal defence and immigration matters. The firm may waive that fee at its discretion. Any fee is disclosed to you in advance and credited in full toward your account if you retain us. Your documents are reviewed and legal advice is given only at a paid consultation or once the firm has been retained. No solicitor-client relationship arises until confirmed in writing.
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Mîra v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2026 FC 603Federal Court · Mr. Justice McHaffie · 6 May 2026 · Docket IMM-21730-24 Our client is a Romanian expert accountant. She says she was prosecuted and convicted in her absence on corruption charges after…
Mîra v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2026 FC 603 Federal Court · Mr. Justice McHaffie · 6 May 2026 · Docket IMM-21730-24
Our client is a Romanian expert accountant. She says she was prosecuted and convicted in her absence on corruption charges after refusing to alter her expert reports to suit prosecutors at Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate. She and her partner claimed refugee protection in Canada in 2018.
How the exclusion arose
The Minister raised exclusion under Article 1F(b) in 2020, then withdrew that intervention in October 2023 after reviewing the evidence. The Refugee Protection Division went on to find our client generally credible and not excluded.
On appeal the Refugee Appeal Division raised exclusion on its own motion, gave notice, and excluded her. The Minister did not intervene. So the finding under review was one the Minister had already abandoned.
What the Court held
The application for judicial review was allowed and the decision set aside for both applicants, on two grounds.
The new evidence. The Division refused fresh evidence of corruption inside the prosecuting authority as irrelevant. The Court found it had mischaracterised the argument and had not engaged with the material at all, which included reporting that linked the prosecutor in our client’s case to indicted officials said to hold influence over prosecutors.
The exclusion finding. The Division reasoned that because Romania is a country where the rule of law prevails, a charge and conviction could be relied on. It cited Arevalo Pineda for that, but not the passages of the same decision requiring an objective assessment of all the claimant’s evidence and satisfaction that the issuing authority itself respects the rule of law. The Court held that reliance on jurisprudence stripped of its qualifying context does not meet the standard, and noted that no assessment of the issuing authority was ever carried out.
On the authority of Qazi, where a claimant alleges the charges are fabricated and has been found credible, the existence of a warrant alone is not enough. The Division had to go further and did not.
Why it was hard
Displacing an Article 1F(b) exclusion is difficult, and considerably harder when the conviction comes from a European Union member state. The presumption that a charge from such a state can be taken at face value is precisely what had to be dislodged, and it was dislodged on the record rather than on assertion.
Outcome
Judicial review allowed. The decision was set aside for both applicants and the appeal remitted to a differently constituted panel. That is the relief sought on a judicial review: the exclusion finding no longer stands and the appeal is heard again before a fresh panel.
Past results are not necessarily indicative of future outcomes. Every matter turns on its own facts. All cases have been anonymised.
Client Stories
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“I had the absolute pleasure of working separately with two lawyers from Lexaltico — Pooja Lassi and Matthew Ram — on different matters. The level of professionalism, expertise, and care demonstrated by each of them was consistently exceptional. They do not simply service your needs — they take the time to thoroughly understand your situation and proactively problem-solve.”
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WHAT IS ACTUALLY AT STAKE
Status Is a Deadline, Not a Document
Most people think of immigration status as a card in a drawer. It is better understood as a clock. Temporary resident status in Canada is granted for a period, it expires on a date, and the consequences of that date passing are set by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, S.C. 2001, c. 27, and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, SOR/2002-227. The document in your hand records the decision. The deadline is what governs your life.
This distinction matters because the most damaging immigration problems we see are not refusals. They are people who did nothing wrong, misread a date, and discovered too late that a routine renewal had become a removal file. A worker whose permit expired while an extension sat unfiled. A student who finished a programme and stayed on, believing the study permit ran to its printed date. A permanent resident who spent three years abroad caring for a parent and assumed the card would simply be renewed on return.
None of those people were badly intentioned. All of them were, at the moment they contacted a lawyer, in a materially worse position than they had been a month earlier. Immigration law is unusually unforgiving of delay, and unusually generous to those who act early. That is the single most useful thing to know before you read anything else on this site.
IF YOUR STATUS HAS LAPSED
Restoration, and the Ninety Day Window
If you have lost temporary resident status because you failed to comply with a condition of your stay, section 182 of the Regulations allows you to apply to have it restored. The application must be made within ninety days of losing status, you must still meet the requirements of the class you are restoring to, and you must not have breached other conditions in the meantime. Those ninety days are calendar days. There is no grace period and no rounding.
Two things about restoration are widely misunderstood. The first is that you cannot work or study while you are out of status, even if an application is pending. Doing so is itself a breach and can defeat the restoration you are asking for. The second is that restoration is not automatic. The provision says an officer shall restore status where the requirements are met, but establishing that they are met is the applicant's burden, and a file that is thin on evidence can fail on a technicality that was avoidable.
Beyond ninety days the picture changes. Restoration is no longer available, and the options that remain are narrower, slower and more discretionary. This is why the first group in the directory below is titled by what has gone wrong rather than by the name of a remedy. If your permit expires in three weeks, you do not need to know what a temporary resident permit is called. You need to speak to someone this week.
MAINTAINED STATUS
The Protection That Depends on Timing
If you apply to extend your stay before your current status expires, you may remain in Canada under the same conditions until a decision is made. This is maintained status, previously called implied status, and it is one of the few genuinely protective features of the temporary resident scheme. It is also entirely conditional on one fact: the application must be received before the expiry date, not after.
The practical consequences are stark. An application filed the day before expiry usually allows you to keep working while it is processed. The same application filed the day after expiry does not, and now requires restoration instead. The work is identical. The outcome is not. We have seen this single day decide whether someone kept a job, a mortgage and a family's stability.
Maintained status also ends the moment a decision is made, whether or not you have received it, and it does not survive leaving Canada in most circumstances. If you are travelling while an extension is pending, that is a question worth asking before you book, not after you are refused boarding.
INADMISSIBILITY
When Something in the Past Blocks the Present
Sections 34 to 42 of the Act set out the grounds on which a person may be found inadmissible to Canada. They cover security, human rights violations, criminality, organised criminality, health, financial reasons, misrepresentation, non compliance with the Act, and inadmissible family members. In practice the categories we are asked about most often are criminality, medical inadmissibility and misrepresentation.
Criminal inadmissibility is the one that most surprises people, because a conviction that seems minor at home may be equivalent to an indictable offence in Canada, and because the assessment looks at the Canadian equivalent of the foreign offence rather than the label it carried abroad. An impaired driving conviction is the classic example. Depending on the circumstances the routes forward may include deemed rehabilitation, an application for criminal rehabilitation, or a temporary resident permit, and which of those applies turns on the offence, the sentence and how much time has passed.
Misrepresentation is the most serious in its consequences and the most often stumbled into innocently. It does not require an intention to deceive. An omission on a form, an answer that was true when written and became untrue before filing, or a consultant's error you never saw can all found a finding. The consequences run for years and reach applications you have not yet made. If you have any concern that a past application contained an error, raise it before an officer does.
REFUSALS AND APPEALS
What Happens After a Negative Decision
A refusal is not always the end, but the route forward depends entirely on which decision was made and by whom. Some decisions carry a right of appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division, including many sponsorship refusals, removal orders against permanent residents and residency obligation decisions. Others carry no appeal at all, and the only avenue is an application for leave and judicial review in the Federal Court under section 72 of the Act.
Judicial review is often misunderstood as a second opinion. It is not. The Federal Court is not asked whether it would have decided differently. It is asked whether the decision was reasonable and whether the process was fair. That is a narrower question, and it changes what evidence matters and how the argument is built. It also carries short deadlines, measured in days rather than months from the date you receive the decision.
Refugee matters run on a separate track. Claims are decided by the Refugee Protection Division, appeals go to the Refugee Appeal Division, and the questions of exclusion, credibility and new evidence that arise there have little in common with an economic immigration file. We handle both, but they are different disciplines and should be treated as such.
FOR EMPLOYERS
Hiring Abroad, and the Compliance That Follows
Employers usually come to us with a hiring problem and leave with a compliance framework, because the two are inseparable. A labour market impact assessment, or an exemption from one, is the beginning of an obligation rather than the end of a process. The conditions attached to a foreign worker's employment bind the employer, the employer must be able to demonstrate compliance for six years, and inspections are not rare events reserved for bad actors.
The failures we are asked to fix are rarely deliberate. A role evolved and the duties no longer match the offer. A wage was set correctly and never revisited as the prevailing rate moved. A worker was promoted, which sounds like good news and can breach a permit. Records were kept by a person who has since left. None of these look like violations from inside the business, and all of them look like violations from outside it.
Where a business is expanding into Canada rather than filling a single role, the sequencing matters. The corporate structure, the intra company transfer, the physical premises and the timing of the first hires interact, and decisions made for tax or commercial reasons can foreclose immigration options that were available a month earlier. We work with the corporate side of the firm on these files so that the two are planned together rather than sequentially.
HOW WE WORK
What to Bring, and What to Expect
Bring every document with a date on it. Passports including expired ones, every permit and visa you have held, the letters that granted or refused them, and the receipts and reference numbers of anything currently filed. If a previous representative acted for you, bring what they sent you. Dates are the raw material of an immigration assessment, and a file assembled from memory is a file assembled from guesses.
Expect the first conversation to be diagnostic rather than promotional. Immigration rules change frequently, sometimes with immediate effect and without transitional provisions, and any firm that tells you the outcome before it has seen your documents is telling you what you want to hear. What we can tell you at the outset is which category your situation falls into, what the governing deadline is, what evidence will decide it, and what the realistic range of outcomes looks like.
Expect also to be told when you do not need a lawyer. A straightforward extension filed in good time, by someone with clean status and no complicating history, often does not require representation. We would rather say so and see you again when something is genuinely at stake than take a fee for filing a form you could have filed yourself.
Figures that change
Everything above this box stays true when a programme changes. The items below do not, which is why they are kept here rather than woven through the text.
Restoration window after loss of temporary resident status: ninety calendar days, IRPR section 182.
Ontario provincial nomination now runs through a single Ontario Workforce Priority stream, following the June 2026 redesign of the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program.
Employer record retention for foreign worker compliance: six years.
Reviewed 1 September 2026. Confirm current requirements with us or with the responsible authority before relying on any figure.
FAMILY AND PERMANENT RESIDENCE
Bringing People Here, and Staying
Family sponsorship looks administrative and is frequently anything but. A spousal application asks a stranger to assess whether a relationship is genuine, on paper, often across a language and a culture, and refusals commonly turn on evidence rather than on truth. Couples who have been together for years lose applications because they documented their lives the way ordinary people do, which is to say hardly at all, while couples with thinner histories succeed because their file was built deliberately.
Permanent residence brings its own obligations once granted. A permanent resident must meet a residency obligation, and time spent outside Canada counts against it unless an exception applies, such as accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse or working abroad for a Canadian business. People discover the shortfall at the worst possible moment, usually at a port of entry or when a permanent resident card needs renewing, and by then the question has become an appeal rather than a plan.
Citizenship is the end of the road for most clients and has its own physical presence requirement, its own knowledge and language components, and its own grounds on which an application can go sideways. It is worth confirming eligibility before applying rather than after, particularly where there have been long absences, prior status gaps, or any question about how earlier applications were completed.
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Is your status at risk?
Four questions. Immigration is mostly deadlines, so this is about dates rather than merits.
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Failure to commence proceedings within applicable limitation periods may permanently bar your claim. In Ontario, the general limitation period is two (2) years from discovery under the Limitations Act, 2002, S.O. 2002, c. 24, Sched. B. Seek legal advice promptly.
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The difference is practical rather than technical. A page explaining that spousal support is
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Case results described anywhere on this site are real and are described accurately, and they are
specific to their own facts. A settlement at three times the original offer happened because of
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These terms are governed by the law of Ontario and the federal law of Canada that applies in
Ontario. Lawyers and licensed professionals at the firm are regulated by the Law Society of
Ontario, and marketing on this site is intended to comply with the
Rules of Professional Conduct.
Every limit on what this website tells you, and every thing it does not do, in one
place rather than in small print at the bottom of each page.
Before you rely on anything here
Four limits, and they matter in this order.
Not legal advice
Everything published on this website is general information. It is not legal
advice, it does not take account of the facts of any particular situation, and reading it does not
create a solicitor client relationship. Do not act, or decide not to act, on anything here without
speaking to a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction about your own circumstances.
Jurisdiction
These pages describe the law of Ontario, and of Alberta only
where a page says so expressly. They do not describe the law of any other province, territory or
country. Law that looks similar across jurisdictions frequently is not.
Currency of the law
Each page states the law as at the review date shown on it. Legislation is amended and case law
develops. A page accurate when written may no longer be.
Generality
These pages describe how a rule usually works. That is not the same as how it applies to your
facts. The exceptions are where most real matters live, and a page written for a general reader
cannot tell you whether you are inside a rule or inside its exception.
If you contact us
If you are in danger
If you or a child are in immediate danger, call 911.
This website is not an emergency service. Enquiries sent through a form here are read during
business hours and a reply may take up to one business day.
Using this website, submitting a form, sending an email or speaking to us on the telephone does
not make us your lawyers. That relationship arises only when the firm has
confirmed in writing that it has agreed to act, a conflict search has been completed, and a
retainer has been signed.
Confidentiality of enquiries
Do not send confidential or sensitive information through this website or by email until we have
confirmed in writing that we can act for you. Information sent before that point is
not treated as confidential and may prevent us from acting for you, or for
someone else, in a connected matter.
Response times
We aim to reply within one business day. Contacting us does not guarantee a reply within any
particular period, does not oblige the firm to act, and does not stop, extend or satisfy
any limitation period, filing date or court deadline.
Our telephone line
Our line is answered 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Outside office hours calls are taken
by our intake service, who record your details and pass them to the firm. A lawyer responds during
the next business day, or sooner if the matter is urgent. Answering the telephone is not the same
as giving legal advice, and no relationship arises from that call.
Who we are and how we are regulated
Law Society of Ontario
Lexaltico LLP is regulated by the Law Society of Ontario under the
Law Society Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. L.8. All lawyers practising in
Ontario through the firm are members in good standing.
Law Society of Alberta
Alberta matters are handled by lawyers licensed with, and in good standing with, the
Law Society of Alberta. A lawyer licensed in Ontario is not thereby licensed in
Alberta, and the reverse is also true.
Immigration regulation
Immigration consulting is provided by Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants
in good standing with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants under the
College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants Act, S.C. 2019, c. 29,
s. 292.
Lawyers, paralegals and consultants
Not everyone at the firm is a lawyer.
Licensed paralegals in Ontario may act only within the scope the Law Society
permits, which does not include most family, estate or criminal matters.
Immigration consultants are regulated by the College, not by a law society,
and are not lawyers.
Law clerks and managers support files but do not give legal advice.
Each page and biography states which applies. Ask at the outset who will handle your matter and
under which licence.
Languages
We serve clients in thirteen languages. Every page of this website is written and published in
English. Where anything is provided in another language, the English
version governs in the event of a difference. If you need an interpreter, tell us when
you book and we will arrange one.
Fees
The initial assessment
The complimentary 15 minute initial assessment is a brief introductory
conversation. It does not include a review of your documents and does not constitute
legal advice.
The firm charges a fee for substantive consultations, including in civil litigation,
criminal defence and immigration matters. The firm may waive that fee at its discretion.
Any fee is disclosed in advance and credited in full toward your account if you retain the
firm.
Referral fees
All referral fee arrangements, including through LexKonnect, comply with
Rule 3.6-6 of the Law Society of Ontario’s
Rules of Professional Conduct. Fees are disclosed to and consented
to by the client, and no arrangement impairs the independent professional judgment of any lawyer
at the firm.
What is published on this site
Calculators and estimators
They produce estimates from what you type and cannot know the rest. They do not
account for the terms of your contract, statutory exceptions, or the discretion a court will
apply. Do not make a decision on a number produced by a calculator.
Past results
Any outcome described happened on its own facts, before its own decision maker,
under the law as it stood at the time. Past results do not predict or guarantee the result of any
other case.
Reviews and testimonials
Reviews shown here are written by third parties and published on platforms we do not control. Each
describes one person’s experience of one matter. They are not a promise, a
prediction or a guarantee about any other matter.
Links to other websites
This site links to regulators, courts, government sources, professional associations and social
platforms, all operated by others. We do not control them, we are not responsible for
their content or accuracy, and a link is not an endorsement.
Other notices
Limitation periods
Failure to start a proceeding within the applicable limitation period may permanently bar
your claim. In Ontario the general period is two years from discovery
under the Limitations Act, 2002, S.O. 2002, c. 24, Sched. B.
Shorter periods apply to many claims. Seek advice promptly. Nothing on this website extends a
limitation period.
Accessibility
We aim to meet the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act
and WCAG 2.1 Level AA. If any part of this site prevents you from reaching us, telephone
+1 416 333 6200 or write to
hello@lexaltico.com and we will provide the information
in another format, at no charge.
