Stuck Immigration File? GCMS Notes, Demand Letters and Mandamus
If your application with IRCC has been waiting far longer than usual, often because of security screening, you do not have to keep waiting without answers. Pax Law Corporation uses a step-by-step approach: first we find out what is happening in your file, then we formally ask IRCC to decide, and if IRCC still does not act, we ask the Federal Court of Canada for an order of mandamus requiring a decision.
There is no fixed legal deadline for most immigration applications. The question is whether the delay in your case is unreasonable, and that depends on the type of application and the facts of your file.
One ladder, three steps
Step 1
GCMS notes and ATIP review
We request your Global Case Management System (GCMS) notes and other records from IRCC and/or CBSA through an Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) request, then review them to see where your file is and why it may be delayed.
Professional fee: $500 (GCMS request) or $1,000 (full ATIP request), plus tax and government fees
Step 2
Demand letter
A lawyer’s demand letter asks IRCC to make a decision within a reasonable time and creates the record the Federal Court expects to see before mandamus. If IRCC makes a decision after the demand letter and before court proceedings start, we refund $1,250.
Included in the mandamus fee below
Step 3
Mandamus at the Federal Court
An Application for Leave and for Judicial Review seeking mandamus asks the Federal Court to order IRCC to decide your application. The Court considers, among other things, whether IRCC owes you a duty to decide, whether you made a demand, and whether the delay is unreasonable and unexplained.
Professional fee: $2,500 for the principal applicant, $3,000 for a family of two, up to $5,000 for a family of six. Federal Court filing fees included.
Our mandamus experience
In Jahantigh v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2023 FC 1253, we challenged a 38-month delay in our client’s study permit. The Federal Court held that security screening cannot justify indefinite delays and ordered the Minister to provide monthly status reports. Dr. Samin Mortazavi has represented applicants whose files were held in security screening, including people who first tried to resolve the delay on their own.
See more of our Federal Court decisions. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes; each case depends on its own facts.
Files we help with
- Permanent residence applications, including protected persons and spousal sponsorship
- Citizenship applications
- Study permits, work permits and visitor visas held in security screening
- Files delayed after a Federal Court settlement or redetermination
- IRGC military service files, see our IRGC defence page
Fees are flat professional fees for ordinary matters, as set out in our retainer agreement. Urgent motions, stays of removal and other extraordinary work are billed separately.
