Yazdanian v. Canada ( Minister of Citizenship and Immigration )
IMM-4894-97
Tremblay-Lamer J.
26/3/99
11 pp.
Application for judicial review of visa officer's decision rejecting applicants' (citizens of Iran) application for permanent residence-Applicant, who had been running own business in Iran for over 30 years and worth in excess of 4 million dollars, applied for permanent residence under entrepreneur class-Nevertheless, visa officer concluded applicant did not meet definition of entrepreneur-Application allowed-Visa officer did not err when she looked to abilities in English, low level of formal education and age in assessing whether or not would be able to establish business in Canada-To extent she reconsidered these factors, she did not engage in double counting-She assessed his skills and then assessed his ability to establish business in Canada-With respect to application of definition, as applicant based his application and submitted evidence with regard to establishment of business only, no error of law or denial of procedural fairness due to visa officer's failure to consider applicant's ability to purchase or make substantial investment in business or commercial venture in Canada-However, "active" and "ongoing" participation in management of business (Immigration Regulations, s. 2(1), "entrepreneur", par. (b)) simply meaning being in position to continually cause action or change in operation of business, no need to be present for day-to-day running of operation-Visa officer erred in not making distinction between participating in management and establishing business-Applicant has onus to provide sufficient information to visa officer to support application, however, when latter, as herein, has specific concern (lack of Western business experience) that could impact negatively on application, fairness requiring applicant be given opportunity to respond to concern-Too much emphasis on Western business experience would deny applications from successful business people who have excelled in business in other cultures-Clear evidence herein of applicant's abilities in business world-Immigration Regulations, 1978, SOR/78-172, s. 2(1) "entrepreneur".