January 2026

We added a new member to our family early this year. Her name is Roberta. She has quickly become a cherished member of our little tribe. We love watching her to see what she will do next. The pets still don’t quite know what to make of her, but for the most part, will move aside for her as she makes her way from room to room.

Roberta is a robot vacuum. And she not only vacuums, but she also mops. She has the cutest little mop pads that she spins around. When she’s done her work, she empties her accumulated dirt and dirty mop water into a container in her home base.  She sends us a notification when these need to be emptied.

Robot vacuums are amazing things, and a testament to human ingenuity and engineering. However, Roberta has not completely replaced me. Roberta’s sensors keep her a certain distance from objects like furniture, and she can’t move things like potted floor plants to vacuum behind them. So, a few times a month, I still lug out the traditional vacuum and mop and clean where Roberta can’t.

Artificial intelligence is very much like Roberta. It has its uses and its limitations. As I wrote in a previous newsletter, ‘Why I’m not Worried my Job Will be Taken Over by a Robot’, chatbots and other forms of artificial intelligence cannot provide emotional support through a stressful immigration journey. Though AI has come a long way since I wrote that newsletter in 2018, it still needs human oversight. At our firm, we use an AI writing assistance tool called Grammarly. It’s great for spotting spelling and grammatical mistakes and can suggest improved sentence flow. I use these tools all the time; Grammarly works much better than traditional word processing tools. However, Grammarly wanted me to put a comma between ‘vacuum’ and ‘mop’ in the preceding paragraph. Putting a comma there would have changed the meaning of the sentence in a way that wouldn’t have reflected what I wanted to say. So, I clicked ‘dismiss’ to get rid of the accusatory blue line Grammarly put under those words.

Grammarly is the only AI tool our law firm currently uses. As technology companies continue to push and advertise AI, we have considered other tools. Each time, we’ve found a number of concerns to the technology that makes us choose not to proceed.

 

Security Issues

AI programs consistently scan and store the information they encounter. What does the program have access to? Does the program store client information and if yes, where and how long? Where are the storage servers located (what country) and what laws apply to the government of that country accessing that stored information? Can we manually delete that information (and do we as a firm have time to do so)?

One question that often gets overlooked when considering security is: Does the company offering the program have its own servers for data storage, or does it contract this out?

Fireflies.ai, a note-taker program, came highly recommended to us. Its security compliance levels are high, but its list of sub-processors is long. We would need to continuously monitor data breaches across US companies, as well as US laws governing government access to AI databases. This would certainly be of major concern to any of our LGBTQIA+ clients coming from the USA in the current political climate.

Further, other staff at Ronalee Carey Law were able to review a meeting transcript via a forwarded link, without having to log in.

A call to The Law Society of Ontario’s Practice Management Helpline confirmed that any transcript the AI notetaker made would need to be reviewed for mistakes and that clients would need to be notified of the use of the AI and would need to give permission.

We decided it wasn’t worth the headache!

 

Environmental and Humanitarian Concerns

We also had concerns about the energy and water AI consumes. Being considerate of the environment is not a new concern for our firm. In 2021, I wrote an article about Climate Migrants. It's no surprise then, that we would want to limit the use of something contributing to the cause. The United Nations and MIT Technology Review have both discussed the rapid need for AI programs to become more energy and water-efficient before expansion. META AI data centre is currently running water taps dry and filling what does run with dark sediment for those who live nearby. The major companies are giving no thought to local water systems or environment.

We’d rather leave the energy and water for life-saving AI programs like early cancer detection.

 

Hallucinations – AI programs make things up

AI programs are designed to make users happy. It doesn’t weed through sources to check for source quality. It simply finds things randomly tossed into the internet’s abyss that match what you ask for and spits it out at you or mashes things together from different sources like a game of MadLibs. You may have heard the sentiment “Don’t trust Wikipedia”, but you can follow Wikipedia to the source material, which may or may not be of good use to you. The same can be said for the information AI provides, but we don’t hear “Don’t trust ChatGPT” from those around us (yet).

Sometimes the hallucinations can be funny, like when Google AI told users to glue pizza, or eat rocks. X users also report that Google’s search engines are having issues with basic calculations that have functioned for a decade.

It’s harder to differentiate the hallucinations when they give real-sounding names and references. However, Stanford University reports that AI hallucinations happen in 1 out of every 6 inquiries or more.

Of course, with AI usage rampant, legal hallucinations have already hit Ontario courts. In May 2025, Ontario Court Justice Joseph Kenkel had to reject a lawyer’s legal arguments for citing an fictious case.  Justice Myers considered holding a different lawyer in contempt of court for the same issue. The BBC also warns that reliance on the use of AI damages your thinking skills and lowers your ability to think critically and problem-solve.

As the technology advances, we will likely adopt more AI tools within our firm. We would be happy to spend more time providing a high level for care for our clients by allowing technology to handle more repetitive tasks (with human review, of course). Until then, we will watch what human ingenuity continues to produce.

 

December 2025

 

Bill C-3: An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025) came into effect this month. This amendment to Canada’s Citizenship Act means that citizenship can be obtained through descent without a limit to the number of generations between individuals born before December 15, 2025, and their Canadian ancestor. Children born after December 15, 2025, will only be able to obtain citizenship if they are born outside of Canada to a Canadian parent who spent at least three years in Canada before the child’s birth.

During Parliament’s debate on the bill, one opposition party expressed concern about the potential scope of the bill, noting that 150,000 to 300,000 individuals could potentially be eligible for citizenship.

Increasingly, our office is being approached by individuals from the USA who have discovered via ancestry.com that they have a Canadian ancestor. Individuals who have benefited from the legislative changes do not need to apply for citizenship – they are considered citizens by birth. They need only apply for a citizenship certificate to obtain proof of citizenship. With this, they can apply for their Canadian passport. In their citizenship certificate application, they must provide documentation establishing their identity, and birth records for themselves and their parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, and so forth, back to the ancestor born in Canada.

Official birth records are required. This can pose a problem, as citizenship claims can predate official government record-keeping. Death records, marriage records, census excerpts, baptismal records, and US immigration records are other documents that can assist the Canadian Immigration department in ascertaining the claim for Canadian citizenship, especially when names vary across documents.

One group affected by the changes to the law are Acadians, descendants of French settlers who arrived in Canada in the 1600s and 1700s, who the British deported to the USA. The Canadian government has helpfully provided information on how to access documents related to Acadian ancestors on their genealogy webpage.

Other applicants could consider consulting a genealogical society. The Canadian government has published a list of societies in Canada, as well as religious organizations that kept birth archives. Library and Archives Canada also maintains a list of freelance researchers who can be hired for a fee to assist in genealogical research.

November 2025

One of the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been an interruption in plans to settle in Canada after obtaining permanent residence status. After being approved to settle in Canada, many individuals I’ve met with found they could not make the move. Finding employment, obtaining housing, and disrupting already disrupted schooling created too heavy a burden for many families. These individuals are now nearing the end of their initial five-year period after obtaining permanent residence, raising concerns that they may not have met the residency obligation.

To maintain your permanent residence status, you must meet the residency obligation, which is 730 days in the previous five-year period. The ‘start date’ of this five-year period is always today’s date. It is not the date the permanent residence card was issued. The five-year period does not end on the day the permanent resident card expires. As citizenship is not tied to the expiry date of a passport, permanent residence status is not tied to the expiry date of a permanent residence card.

Consider the following scenario:

You became a PR on January 1, 2026, and left Canada within a few days. If you have not moved to Canada by December 31, 2028, you will not meet the PR residency requirement within the five-year period after you became a permanent resident.

If you move to Canada by December 31, 2028, you cannot leave Canada for 730 days; otherwise, you will not be able to meet the residency obligation. Once you have met the residency obligation, you can travel.

If you travel on January 1, 2032, you will still be in breach of the residency obligation because you need to buffer the time you will be away. To ensure you have buffer time, you will need to be in Canada until mid-January 2032 to travel for two weeks. Otherwise, you are at risk of being issued an s. 44(1) Report upon your return.

What is a s.44(1) Report?

A s.44(1) Report is prepared if the officer is of the opinion that a permanent resident or foreign national in Canada is inadmissible. The operational manual instructs border service officers to assess a PR's residency obligation. If, following an assessment, an officer concludes that a PR has failed to comply with the residency obligation, the officer may prepare a report for inadmissibility (s. 44(1) Report). However, officers are required by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act s.28(2)(c) to take into account humanitarian and compassionate considerations. The officers must articulate consideration of these prescribed factors in the decision to write a s.44(1) Report.

What happens if you move to Canada between January 1, 2029, and when your PR card expires?

You will be permitted to enter Canada by land or board a flight if you are flying; permanent residents have the right to enter Canada. Be prepared to be questioned by a border official as to your breach of residency obligation. If you are questioned, you must be prepared to present H&C (Humanitarian and Compassionate) submissions.

If your H&C submissions are accepted, an s. 441(1) Report will not be issued against you. However, you should not apply for a new PR card or travel until you have met the residency obligation. Any re-entry to Canada could trigger a residency investigation, as could applying for a new PR card. The golden rule is to never apply for a PR card unless you have lived in Canada for at least 730 days in the 5 years directly before you sign the application.

Also, you might not be able to apply for a SIN or provincial health insurance without a PR card. This means that you must be in Canada, but you might not have health insurance or be able to work. Thus, it is essential not to wait and get your SIN immediately after getting your PR!

If your H&C submissions are not accepted, s. 44(1) Report will be issued. This is the first step towards removing permanent residency. However, if your status is removed, you will have the right to appeal. While your appeal is pending, you can begin establishing yourself in Canada, and additional documentation about your establishment can be provided. This means that the more time waiting for the appeal, the more time to get established. You will be issued a one-year PR card as part of the appeal process (if your card has or will expire while you wait for your appeal). If the appeal is accepted, your PR is not lost.

 

Sponsoring a family member when not meeting the residency obligation

Sponsoring a family member or any other type of IRCC application could trigger a residency obligation investigation. It is ill-advised to submit a sponsorship application until you have met the residency obligation.

‘Soft Landing’ – PR card might not be issued

A ‘soft landing’ is when new Canadian immigrants briefly visit Canada before moving permanently. Arriving PRs must have their Confirmation of Permanent Residence document and a valid visa, if applicable.

Regarding the obligation to establish permanent residence, it is recognized that not everyone can move permanently to Canada by the expiry date of their Confirmation of Permanent Residency. Border officials are to deal with this situation as they are directed in the official policy manual. According to the manual, arriving PRs must satisfy a border official that they intend to establish permanent residence in Canada. Still, there may be valid reasons for not doing so immediately, and they may not be in a position to provide an address at that time. The policy manual then suggests that occasionally, it may be appropriate for arriving PRs to provide the address of a third party (friend, relative, service provider or a paid representative) in Canada to facilitate the processing and issuance of the PR card upon their arrival.

However, if there are indications that the initial entry to Canada is for a short trip, and the third-party address is provided solely for international forwarding of the PR card, the PR may be flagged with an info alert indicating that you are outside Canada. If the arriving PRs plan to leave Canada before receiving their PR cards, the officer is instructed to advise the PRs to obtain a PR travel document.

October 2025

IRCC has updated processing times for the various immigration applications and refugee claims. For some applications, the new updated processing times raise alarms for lawyers and applicants.