I am a Cameroonian citizen and a chartered accountant working in the banking sector. I live in Douala with my wife, Jeanine, a secretary, whom I have been married to for 15 years. We have three children together, all of whom I have always considered my own and who bear my surname on their civil status documents.
Alfred, Express Entry Applicant
Due to the country’s socio-economic situation and my desire to provide a better future for my family, I decided to begin the Canadian immigration process through Express Entry. I personally handled the preparation and follow-up of my application.
Everything was going well until I received a Procedural Fairness Letter (PFL) from IRCC. In the letter, IRCC informed me that my wife also appeared in another immigration profile as the accompanying spouse of another applicant, together with two children.
I thought it was a case of mistaken identity involving someone with the same name. I therefore responded by providing our marriage certificate, family photographs, and all the requested documents to prove that Jeanine was exclusively my wife.
A few weeks later, IRCC asked me to provide proof of biological parentage for my three children and designated an accredited laboratory where the DNA tests were to be conducted.
I complied with the request. I went with my three children to the laboratory designated by IRCC to provide the required samples. When I received the official results, I was utterly shocked to discover that, of my three children, only the eldest was biologically mine. The other two were not. Unable to believe the results, I requested a second opinion from another laboratory, which confirmed the same findings.
It was only after conducting my own investigations that I understood the possible connection with IRCC’s letter: my wife had apparently initiated another immigration process in parallel with another man, including the two children who were not biologically mine in that application.
I now find myself in an extremely difficult situation, both in my family life and regarding my immigration plans. I have just received IRCC’s final warning informing me that any misrepresentation could result in the refusal of my application and a five-year ban from entering Canada.
I would like to make it clear that I was never aware of my wife’s second immigration profile, nor did I know that two of the children were not biologically mine. I have always declared my family in good faith, based on what I knew and believed to be true.
I am now seeking assistance on how to respond honestly to IRCC and protect my eligibility, given that I have only just discovered the truth through the very process initiated by IRCC.
Disclaimer
Expert responses are provided for general informational purposes only and are based solely on the information submitted by readers. They do not constitute legal, immigration, financial, tax, employment, or other professional advice and do not create a professional-client relationship. Individual circumstances vary, and readers should seek advice from a qualified professional regarding their specific situation. Immigrant Muse and contributing experts disclaim liability for any actions taken based on information published in this section.
Expert response
Usman Khalil
“An IRCC procedural fairness letter is a serious opportunity to address specific concerns, not a final finding of misrepresentation. The first task is to read the exact letter and compare it with the answers submitted in the Express Entry application.
A DNA result indicating that two children are not the applicant’s biological children does not, by itself, mean they were improperly declared. Under Canada’s immigration regulations, family members can include qualifying dependent children of an applicant’s spouse. Whether the children qualify depends on their relationship to the spouse, ages, dependency and the facts declared. A surname alone does not settle those questions.
The separate concern is the spouse reportedly appearing as an accompanying spouse in another immigration profile. The identity, dates and content of that profile need verification. It would be unsafe to assume either mistaken identity or deliberate deception without reliable evidence.
The applicant should prepare a factual timeline explaining what he declared, what he knew at each stage, when he received the DNA results and what he learned about the other profile. He should reconcile his original forms with marriage and birth records, IRCC correspondence and authentic laboratory reports. Where something cannot be verified, he should say so rather than speculate, and explain any needed corrections.
Under sections 16 and 40 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, applicants must answer truthfully, and material direct or indirect misrepresentation can lead to a five-year inadmissibility finding. Good faith alone does not automatically remove that risk. A warning is not a final decision.
Given the stakes, a licensed Canadian immigration professional should review the actual letter and evidence so that a complete, accurate response reaches IRCC before the stated deadline. No outcome can responsibly be predicted from this summary.”
Usman Khalil is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (R709592) and Chartered Professional Accountant in Ontario (C83028834) with MAK Canadian Immigration Services. His work focuses on business immigration, source-of-funds and financial evidence, and practical record preservation for newcomers and immigration applicants. His articles on newcomer financial and evidence issues have appeared in Advisor.ca, Canadian Accountant and CPA Practice Advisor. He advises clients on how employment, banking, tax, business and transaction records can support later immigration and financial-evidence questions, and works through MAK’s Mississauga and Scarborough offices in Ontario.
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