Thanks a lot Canada

To whom it may concern,

I have emailed MP's several times about the issues my fiancée, Blair Hacche, and our entire family is facing with Canadian immigration. The issue now is that CIC are about to force me to decide which of my two Canadian children I can live with. Some people may blame my fiancée for separating me from one of my children but we strongly believe the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the Canadian government and we will relentlessly push to have the Canadians governments inhumane treatment and lack of compassion to our family exposed in every world wide media outlet we possibly can. We would like to expose the propaganda that the Canadian government tries to sell by claiming to be a nation that places a lot of importance on family values and unity, that is not what they have shown us.

The basics again are that Blair is a 35 year old computer programmer from New Zealand. I am a 33 year old Canadian woman, with a 6 year old son, Ewan, from a past marriage. Ewan’s father is Canadian. Blair arrived in Canada on the 2nd of February 2013, was here for 6 months as a visitor and then got a non-extendible 12 month working holiday visa. In November 2013 we had a child together. His name is Dexter Hacche. When Blairs work permit was a month away from expiring and he was informed that the company he worked for would offer him a 12 month extension to his contract through the recruiter he worked for. Blair called CIC many times to make sure he knew his options and what he should do. CIC neglected to tell him the most obvious solution which I will speak about shortly and instead told him that his only option was to get his employer to obtain a labour market impact assessment (LMIA). At this point there was around a month left on his working visa and he asked the recruiter to obtain the LMIA on his behalf. The recruiter took three and a half weeks to inform him that they would not do it despite him calling and emailing more than once a day to get an answer from them. Blair was very short on time by the time the recruiter informed him of the bad news. At this point Blair urgently attempted to get an appointment with an immigration lawyer, however none were available to him in the required time frame. He did however get to speak to an immigration lawyer on the phone.

Neither CIC nor the immigration lawyer he spoke to informed him that if he sent a work permit application right along with the permanent residence application he had ready to send he would have been able to stay in Canada and continue working on an implied status for the entirety of the extremely long wait time for processing of the PR application. Instead CIC informed Blair that if he sent an on-line work permit application he would be able to continue working on an implied status for the month it took to process that work permit application. Blair says he would be happy to assume blame for the situation had that best option actually been displayed to him on the CIC website or provided by the CIC representatives or that information was actually made more readily available by CIC. Instead Blair was given bad advice and it has put us in a terrible position. When the work permit application was refused we were informed that Blair had 90 days to restore his status as a visitor or submit another application. Blair spoke to CIC and they advised him to sent a letter claiming that a mistake had been made by CIC on the application which he did since the refusal stated that he needed a LMIA and he was actually applying for an open work permit to be a self employed consultant. A month and a half later CIC finally advised him that the review was unsuccessful. He then submitted an application to restore his status as a visitor so that he would not be forced to split our family apart and to give us time to figure out a solution to our financial issues.

Blair met with an immigration lawyer recently and was informed that not only would a LMIA through a recruiter be denied as Canada will not grant them through a recruiter, but he would have to have a job offer that would pay at least $32 an hour directly with the company he would work for before a LMIA would be successful. This is an impossible ask in his position. Worse yet the immigration lawyer stated that he firmly believes that in our situation the Canadian government will refuse his application to restore his status as a visitor and he will be forced to leave Canada.

We are totally disappointed and disenchanted with the Canadian government and their apparent lack of regard for our family and our situation. Blair is rapidly losing interest in living in Canada at all as he states that he knows many foreigners, including Canadians, who live in New Zealand and have not been forced under any of the stress or difficulties that the Canadian government are forcing us under.

So what is the result of this process?

Blair is making plans to sell the house he purchased for our family to live in here in Canada, and to pay another $8000 to ship his possessions back to New Zealand. He will have to cancel his inland residence application and will lose the $550 spent on that since the application is open but has not even begun to be processed yet. He insists that our son Dexter Hacche will return to New Zealand with him and it is hard to fight that since Dexter and Blair are like two peas in a pod. Dexter is so happy when he is with his father and they do everything together. He also states that the government in New Zealand will provide a lot more financial support that I would get if he was to leave him here with me. I have considerable debt here due to a custody battle over Ewan between my ex and I. We can’t afford to run two households 13,000km apart. Therefore our house in Canada will be sold and Blair may purchase a property back in New Zealand. If I remain I will likely be living in my parents basement to be able to pay off the debts. I am not a bad or uncaring mother, and in fact it will most likely literally kill me to not be with one of my sons but I can’t provide for both of my sons alone and Canada may be forcing me into making a sacrifice that no one should be forced to make.

To make this extremely clear the Canadian government has given me 4 options:

1. Try to convince Blair to be the one who makes the sacrifice no parent should have to make, I lose Blair and he loses his entire family.
2. Let Blair and Dexter leave so I lose my fiancée and one of my sons. I lose one of my Canadian born sons and my fiancée.
3. I go to New Zealand with Blair and Dexter. I lose my 6 year old son who’s father will not allow him to leave with me and he loses his mother.

To be completely honest we feel like any government who claims that family value and unity is such a big thing in this country should either open up their eyes and take a look at how policies are making it a blatant lie and maybe change the claim to the Canadian government has no regard or concern whatsoever about family values and unity if one of those family members is not Canadian. There was an article published in the Dorchester signpost this week about out family and our problem. This is CIC’s media response about our issue:

CIC media relations adviser/spokesperson for the western region, Sonia Lesage, said in an email statement that the Government of Canada is committed to improving processing times and reducing backlogs, and has taken action to do so and that they are improving the way they process applications so that it’s faster and more efficient.

“Just two years after the launch of the Action Plan for Faster Family Reunification, the government has reduced the backlog by nearly 50 per cent. Had no action been taken over the long term, it was predicted that the backlog could have increased to 250,000 persons with wait times of 15 years by 2015.

“The Government of Canada is actively working to reunite families with their loved ones more quickly. CIC gives the highest priority to Family Class applications for spouses, partners and dependent children overseas, in support of its commitment to family reunification.”

So what is the Canadian governments intention here? Ruin lives by separating and destroying families and then trying to fix it by reuniting them later. The fact that the Canadian government can’t see past their own unfair policies and instead will cause the evil action of separating a parent from a child to me means that someone needs to really push and show the government the error of their ways, or failing that to push and show the Canadian people, and the rest of the world, the evil actions the Canadian government finds perfectly acceptable. 

Jenn Ward.

Hopelessness

Well, a long time has past and still no resolution. It took CIC a month and a half to review the refusal of my work permit and to refuse it again all the whole providing me with conflicting information. Post it here, no email it and it will be done within 24 hours, there is no email address so post it. Since you posted it a couple of weeks ago you will hear by the end of the week. Nope, you might never hear anything at all about it, they will definitely have a decision within a month, there is no way to know how long it will take them. I am sorry if this post seems negative about Canadian immigration but I have worked in several countries around the world and dealt with countless government agencies, and never have I ever been so badly messed around, misled, and let down.

We are getting further into debt and closer to bankruptcy and losing the house I bought for my family. There is no light at the end of the tunnel and no prospects for success. I can't help but wish we had the option of giving up and going to live in New Zealand for a while, I have tried everything and come out empty handed or empty pocketed to be more accurate. Apparently immigration doesn't care that I have Canadian kids to feed, I should just sit around with no income for a further 8 or 9 months waiting for first stage approval on my residence before I can actually buy diapers or baby food, but god no matter how much I try I just can't convince my 9 month old son to stop eating or pooping. The amount of stress this is putting on me has made me break out in hives for the first time ever and is also giving my fiance constant migraines and making her feel physically ill.

I was told I put the cart before the horse applying for a work permit before getting first stage approval on my residence application. How the hell could anyone in my position put the horse before the cart?

I came to Canada on a tourist visa for a few months, my Canadian girl friend got pregnant, so i got a 12 month working holiday permit, which was the only one available to me at the time, and got a job so I could support the family while my fiance was suffering from a very rough pregnancy and couldn't work. I applied for residence after 12 months when I was considered to be in a common law relationship. When my non-extendable work permit was running out I applied for a new work permit to allow me to work while waiting the 12 months for a residence application to get first stage approval. Some one please tell me what I did wrong here because I don't see how I could have done anything better?

So my advice to anyone considering coming to Canada and getting themselves into a position like mine is DON'T DO IT, not even if you think you have the money to get by for 2 years without working....I brought $130,000 into Canada  from New Zealand and it is gone.... Mortgage companies are not super excited to lend money to someone who isn't a resident and doesn't have a credit rating in Canada despite a perfect credit rating back home....so expect to pay double the down payment that someone else might. And if you do get a temporary work permit and are a professional with a decade of experience and glowing references prepare yourself to earn half what you used to.... Why would anyone want to hire someone who may just end up having to leave the country?.... And even when you do find a job you probably won't be able to get a second work permit and may have to leave your kids behind, missing their first steps, first words or other important milestones in your children's lives because you have to leave them behind to go home and work because there is such a big backlog of applications that it takes 18 months for a residence application. Maybe you would get luckier and work directly for a company or even for a halfway decent recruiter who will obtain a Labour market impact assessment for you instead of messing you around for weeks until it is too late to arrange anything.

Hey CIC, I have a fantastic idea for you. Why don't you give some of the people who you won't give work permits to jobs to help clear your backlog? Kill two birds with one stone. Or maybe you should just look at amending the rules to cater for the huge backlog so someone like me me with Canadian kids to feed doesn't get totally screwed.