Home/How we work
How a file is built
This page sets out our working method in full. We publish it because a client is entitled to know what they are paying for, and because a method that cannot be described plainly is usually not a method.
Four premises everything else follows from
- The decision-maker knows only what is in the file. A fact that is true but undocumented has no weight. Preparation is therefore mostly the work of getting true things into a checkable form.
- Every stream has a test with elements. Evidence is gathered against those elements. Material that does not go to an element adds length without adding weight, and length is not neutral.
- Credibility is assessed by consistency. Not by sincerity, and not by volume. A single unexplained inconsistency between a port of entry note, a narrative, and testimony can outweigh a great deal of supporting material.
- The strongest objection is usually visible before filing. If we can see it, so can the officer. It is addressed in the submission rather than left to be raised against you.
The sequence
Intake and limitation check
Before anything else, we establish whether a period is running. Decisions, notices, and letters are dated and checked on the day you arrive. Everything else can wait a week; a limitation period cannot.
Written assessment
You receive a written assessment identifying the applicable stream and provision, the elements to be established, the evidence available and the evidence missing, the principal risks, and a realistic timeline. Where we assess that the criteria cannot be met, the assessment says so and the engagement ends there.
Evidence architecture
We build an index mapping each element of the test to the documents that establish it, with the gaps visible. That index drives what you are asked to obtain, and it becomes the structure of the final submission so that an officer can verify each assertion without searching.
First-person drafting
Narratives and personal statements are drafted from your own account and in your own voice, then read back and corrected until you recognise them. We do not put words in your mouth, because words in your mouth do not survive questioning and should not.
Adversarial review
Before filing, the file is read as though the objective were to refuse it. Every inconsistency, gap, and unfavourable inference available on the record is listed. Each one is then either resolved with evidence or addressed openly in the submission.
Filing, monitoring, and response
We file, confirm receipt, diarise the expected milestones, and monitor. Where a procedural fairness letter or a request for further information arrives, it is answered on its own terms and within its own deadline, using the index built at stage three.
What we will not do
A method is defined as much by its refusals as by its steps.
- Guarantee an outcome. Nobody can. A representative who offers one is either misinformed or dishonest, and both should end the conversation.
- File an application we have assessed as unfounded. Filing to collect a fee wastes your money and, worse, creates a record that damages the application that might have worked.
- Submit anything we have reason to believe is false. This is not only a professional obligation. A misrepresentation finding is far more damaging than the refusal it was intended to avoid.
- Write your account for you. We draft from what you tell us, and you correct it. That is a different activity from inventing a narrative that fits the criteria.
- Let a family member interpret a sensitive interview. Where interpretation is needed, we arrange a qualified interpreter, both for accuracy and because some things cannot be said in front of relatives.
- Take a file we cannot serve properly. Where a matter belongs with a lawyer or a differently qualified representative, we say so at the consultation and refer.
Your side of the file
- Tell us the difficult facts early. Prior refusals from any country, a criminal charge, a previous marriage, an earlier claim, a period without status. These are all manageable when known and severely damaging when discovered.
- Keep every notice and envelope. Dates of receipt determine limitation periods. Keep the email header or the envelope, not only the letter.
- Tell us when your contact details change, including the mailing address on file with the department. Correspondence sent to an old address is still treated as received.
- Do not file anything separately while we are engaged without telling us. Parallel submissions create inconsistencies in the record that are difficult to explain afterwards.
- Ask when you do not understand. If a document we send you is not clear, that is a problem with the document. Say so and we will rewrite it.
Ask us to explain the method against your own file.
The best test of any working method is whether it produces sensible answers about your specific matter. Bring the documents you have and we will show you what the index would look like.
647-546-0134 · admin@hf-imm.ca