KINGS - Convention Refugees
Contents
Definitions
[This is from Canada Citizenship and Immigration.]
Convention Refugee
Convention refugees are people who are outside their home country or the country where they normally live, and who are unwilling to return because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on:
- race
- religion
- political opinion
- nationality or
- membership in a particular social group, such as women or people of a particular sexual orientation.
Person in need of protection
A person in need of protection is a person in Canada whose removal to their home country or country where they normally live would subject them personally to:
- a danger of torture;
- a risk to their life; or
- a risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.
Safe Third Country
Canada's "safe third country" rule means that if someone has refugee status in a safe country Canada will not recognize them as a refugee here. So we need to be clear with international inquirers that our policy is based on obtaining Canadian designation as a refugee.
Documentation
Refugees will all have a letter from an Immigration Officer confirming their status. They are also advised to apply to CIC for a Protected Person Status document, which has a photo on it. We would prefer the latter for identification and confirmation of status, but the letter will suffice.
Admissibility
Protected persons are generally admissible to King's just as any other student. They will likely have difficulty documenting academic credentials; King's will use its English Language Skills Assessment Test and Math Skills Assessment Test to assist in determining the applicant's eligibility for admission, and will waive the fees for those tests.
We will accept their self-report of institutions attended and, after admission, will work with them to use prior learning assessment (in our case Course Challenge) to grant credit for prior study. The number of credits to be awarded is still limited to 12 by King's regulations.
Application
Applicants who are Convention Refugees can specify that while applying through ApplyAlberta. The application fee is dependent on the address applied from rather than citizenship status, so it remains $70 for US/Canadian addresses and $140 elsewhere. Appeals of the fee will be considered.
Fees
Convention Refugees do not pay international student fees.
Links
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/index.asp
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