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Jamaican denied PR because Canadian wife is 17 years older gets second chance due to 'unfounded stereotype'
A Jamaican immigrant denied permanent residency because the Canadian wife who sponsored him was 17 years his senior has won another shot at staying here.
Richard Ricardo Williams, who lives with his spouse in Port Coquitlam, B.C., applied to the Federal Court for a review after an immigration officer turned down his application.
The officer “found that the couple’s 17-year age difference was evidence of an ingenuine relationship,” Justice Negar Azmudeh wrote in a recent decision.
That’s an “unfounded assumption or stereotype,” said the judge.
“It is unclear what the officer’s expectation for a reasonable age difference was and why the age gap was relevant. The couple cannot be faulted for not proactively explaining what they did not see as an issue.”
If the immigration officer “saw it as an issue, then they had to raise it (in a procedural fairness letter) or during an interview (which was never given) to give them an opportunity to address it. Regardless, basing the decision on an unfounded assumption creates a gap in the chain of reasoning,” Azmudeh said.
Williams entered Canada as a visitor on July 7, 2022, said the decision dated Jan. 15.
“Shortly after arriving in Canada, he met Ms. Alita Wendy Gramigni, Canadian citizen, at a party. They started a relationship, he moved in with her, and a year later, on June 25, 2023, they got married.”
Williams then applied for permanent residency under the spouse class, with Gramigni as his sponsor.
When the two first met, they didn’t know each other’s ages, she said in an interview Thursday. “People don’t usually think I am a 42-year-old woman, and he definitely didn’t seem like an in his 20s guy. So, we were both kind of shocked when we realized each other’s ages. But I’m not in that mind frame where it matters, and neither is he. So, it never bothered us. We just thought it was kind of funny.”
But on July 14, 2024, an immigration officer “sent a procedural fairness letter to Mr. Williams expressing concerns about the genuineness of the relationship and asking the couple to send specific documents,” said the court decision.
In support of Williams’ application, the couple submitted lots of documents and photos.
“Upon reviewing the documents, the officer found that the relationship was not genuine. In their reasons, the officer found the 17-year age difference (here, the wife is older), the start of the relationship after a month of (Williams’) arrival in Canada, and their small wedding with few details, and few joint documents as reasons that their relationship was not genuine,” said the decision.
The “officer also made credibility findings material to the decision, stating … ‘that the sponsor’s family did not meet the sponsor until September 2023 which was after their wedding — however photo on file shows a photo of sponsor and her mother at the wedding.'”
The officer “never held an interview to test” the couple’s credibility, said the decision.
Lawyers representing Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab argued “that the decision was reasonable and was reached fairly.”
The judge disagreed.
“Many of the determinative factors for the officer, such as their determination that the couple’s age difference was suspect without further scrutiny or analysis, are unfounded credibility findings based on stereotypes or unexplained expectations,” Azmudeh said.
“Without explaining the foundation of their finding, the officer found the timeline of the relationship to be too speedy for a genuine relationship. Other than their own unexplained assumption or expectation of what a reasonable timeline should be, it is unclear from their reasons how meeting someone at a party a month after arriving in Canada, then deciding to live together and get married a year later are problematic to the genuineness of the relationship. The gap in the chain of reasoning on a material finding renders the decision unreasonable.”
The judge concluded that the officer’s “reasons were tainted by their reliance on multiple assumptions rather than on evidence supporting their conclusions. That renders the decision unreasonable.”
She allowed the judicial review.
“This matter is returned to a different decision-maker for determination,” Azmudeh said, noting Williams “can make additional submissions” before that happens.
Gramigni, who now goes by Gramigni-Williams, said Thursday that she was pained to learn the immigration officer denied her spouse because of their age difference.
“I was offended. Who are you to say that there’s no way that this younger guy could actually have feelings for me because I am too old now? Does that mean I don’t have value anymore?”
She understands the skepticism. “Maybe it’s not traditional. Maybe it’s not as common,” she said. “But that doesn’t make it wrong.”
What she can’t grasp is why the immigration officer who had doubts about the legitimacy of the marriage didn’t bring them in for questioning.
“I find that absurd that you can make judgement on somebody and really alter their whole future, their whole life, just based off of a number, a birth date; it’s crazy to me,” she said.
“Being Canadian, I thought that we thought differently, and I was proven wrong that day.”
Gramigni-Williams, who cuts hair for a living and runs her own cleaning outfit, has two grown children from a previous relationship. “One’s in university; one just graduated recently.”
Now, while they wait for a new decision on his permanent residency application, they are trying for a child of their own.
“That is the plan,” she said. “I’ve got one more left in me, I think.”
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