If she has cancer

You should have an attorney that is experienced in medical inadmissibility cases because it is likely that, at a minimum, you will be asked to provide further information about your wife's treatment, prognosis and further care requirements.

You should also discuss this with her doctor's because you will likely need to provide letters from them about her condition.  Ideally, you will want letters stating that her cancer is effectively cured, her prognosis excellent and her follow-up care minimal (CIC will look 5 to 10 years into the future to estimate the costs associated with her care.)

The evaluation of costs is also based upon the policies of the province where you have proposed landing.  If you have insurance coverage in Canada (e.g., supplemental policies beyond provincial health care) that can be an important factor in your case as well (see the Companioni case, which deals specifically with medical costs and mitigation plans, an analogue for Hilewitz, which dealt with excessive demand for social services and mitigation plans.)

If you are a Canadian citizen and will be returning to Canada, medical inadmissibility will not be an issue.  If you are an economic immigrant (and since you posted this in the FSW sub-forum I assume that is the case) then it IS an issue and you should be prepared to deal with it.

Have you spoken to your attorney about this yet?  Not all attorneys are comfortable with medical issue cases, and if yours isn't you should find one who is.

Based upon my own personal experience, you would do the medical examination, the DME will report his/her findings to Ottawa and if there are any questions you will receive a follow-up letter asking for more information about 3 months after your medical exam.  If there are no further follow-up questions you would either receive a request for any final documents (e.g., updated police clearance) and your passports.  Alternatively, you would receive a "fairness letter" that sets forth the concerns of CIC (medical issues are decided by the medical officer in Ottawa, although anything you hear will be from the Visa officer.)  Any follow-up medical information can be presented at that time (this is a "challenge to the medical opinion") as well as any mitigation plan that you have in place.  If either of these are persuasive, then you move on to the final stage.  If neither are persuasive, you will receive a rejection.

If you are rejected, you can choose to challenge it in court (get an attorney experienced in immigration reviews, since it is not a mandatory process - you have to convince the court there is a substantive issue of fairness and/or law to decide or they will simply refuse to hear your case.)  An outland case gives you 60 days from the date of the rejection to request a review.  That process takes roughly 9 months if your case is accepted for review (takes 1-2 weeks to get the Rule 9 response, 30 days to file the legal arguments requesting review, 30 days for the government to file their response arguments, another 2 weeks to file any further responsive arguments, then 30-60 days for the court to review and decide if they will hear the case.  Then they schedule a hearing - another 30 days or so, you go to the hearing, and you get a decision, usually within another month.)

I hope your wife recovers completely from her cancer treatments, regardless of the outcome of your immigration process.  Of course, I wish you all the best with your immigration process as well.

 

Nick,

It is impossible to estimate the likelihood of success because every case is unique.  Indeed, CIC is required to perform an individualized assessment of your case (and your wife's case).  Failure to do so has been a common source for overturning initial CIC rejections in previous cases in recent years.

It also depends upon the health policies of the province in which you plan to land, and someone knowledgeable with the rules of that specific province will be able to provide you with insight that I'm not in a position to provide.

I can tell you that my own understanding here is personally based - I was formally rejected for immigration due to medical inadmissibility last month (it was very much the proverbial "lump of coal" in my Christmas stocking, since the letter was issued on 22 December.)  This despite the fact that I currently don't require anything other than medical monitoring (which isn't considered to create excessive demand) and I provided a detailed, in place, employment based plan to pay 100% of the costs of concern here (medication),  complete with overlapping coverage: one private insurance policy, one group policy and an employer provided reimbursement plan known as a PHSP, which included full reimbursement for the private insurance policy.  In addition I substantiated that I had 17 years of continuous employment with the same company and it is unlikely that this is going to change in the foreseeable future.

Ironically, I am morally opposed to the consumption of said medications, but that is not a factor that CIC considers.

They even knew that in the 2.5 years they spent processing my skilled worker application I had married a Canadian citizen.  While medical inadmissibility is not a consideration for spousal sponsorship, filing for same means starting all over at the beginning of the process, collecting the same documents as were submitted with the original application.  In addition, I've read some information on the CIC website that indicates a PRIOR finding of inadmissibility for any reason must be resolved before one can submit a new application in a different category, although it is difficult to validate this position.  It is clear that it will subject me (and my spouse) to considerable additional scrutiny.  Thus, for the time being I've decided to pursue the appeals process.

My own request for review was filed last week.  The Federal Court system is quite easy to track progress online, so I can see when the request for review was filed, when the Rule 9 request was sent, and that the government has filed a notice of appearance.  I have looked at a number of other cases, and my general sense of the time involved is reflected in my original comments.

I wish I could give you something more specific to your case, but it really is specific to the individual case.

Here's an approach you might find useful in evaluating your situation: if you were a CIC medical officer reviewing your file, would you be concerned about the demand your wife might place on the Canadian medical system?

Thank you so much Computergeek. This is really useful and insightful information. I have read it many times. Now I am more self-confident than before and I am not only one as well. We have survived cancer, so we can go through it as well.   Again, thank you for your help.

Since your daughter no longer has any ongoing treatment and has not been taking any medication for almost 11 years, it shouldn’t be a problem. Normally, a problem occurs when someone needs ongoing treatment as this will cause a burden on the Canadian health care system or if there is a risk a disease can be easily transmitted. As neither of these concerns seems to apply to your case, the concern you raise should not be a problem.