Your gateway to Canada

By Attorney Henry Moyal

DO NOT LOSE HOPE IN IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

This week we are taking a break from the usual flood of immigration Q&A queries to devote the article to one caregiver who has paid her dues for 14 years in Canada and was nearly removed from Canada last week.

Ms. Rosales (not her real name) entered Canada in early 1990 from the Philippines to work as a caregiver. Ms. Rosales left her stable job as a nurse in Manila in order to work abroad to earn more money to support her husband and three teenage children.

Immigration rules at the time of her entry required her to work for two years before she was able to apply for permanent residence. She did. She applied and was approved in principle pending medical examinations of her dependants in the Philippines. In 1993 her family completed the medicals.

In 1995, several attempts were made to finalize the application but it seemed that the immigration department either lost the file or were too lazy to notify Ms. Rosales. By that time, the medicals expired and the immigration department demanded that everyone undergo another medical.

Unfortunately, over six years passed since Ms. Rosales left the Philippines and her husband left the family home and abandoned the children. Under immigration law, ALL family members must undergo a medical and therefore this caused a predicament. The husband could not be found and on the other hand immigration would not issue immigration visas.

To make matters worse, Ms. Rosales’ children were now adults and could not be included in the application.

After 14 years of working in Canada, Ms. Rosales received a notice to leave Canada. She then hired a consultant who for some strange (incompetent) reason charged her a small fortune to apply as a visitor to Canada. That application was quickly refused.

Ms. Rosales then approached a paralegal who contacted the immigration department explaining that she required to work and wanted to reinstate her work permit. Again, that application was quickly refused.

Ms. Rosales then approached our firm who investigated the matter and discovered that the decision to remove her was in violation of the Immigration Act and s.44 of the report made against her was invalid. We attended the hearing last week armed with information supporting that the approval of 1993 be reinstated.

We received the approval this week and Ms. Rosales will become an immigrant soon. Unfortunately, her children are married and not eligible to join her but the lesson to be learned is that there is always hope in the immigration system and sometimes justice does prevail.

****** TESS, APO HIKING IS ON TOUR IN THE USA. I RECENTLY MET THEM AND I WOULD LIKE THE PHOTO IN THE NEXT ATTACHED INSERTED HERE****** THANX.

Attorney Henry Moyal is a certified and licensed Immigration Lawyer in Toronto, Ontario. The above article is general advice only and not intended to act as a legal document. Send questions in confidence to Balita or to Attorney Moyal by fax, mail or email canada@moyal.com