Ontario woman desperately seeks Canadian visa for Haitian husband
January 19 2010 by Liam Clifford
Canadian authorities come under pressuer from Ontario resident to allow her husband to gain permanent residency.
Ontario resident Stacey Gala is calling for Canadian
immigration authorities to allow her Haitian husband to move to Canada as soon
as possible, after being told his permanent residency application could take
three months to be processed.
She was married to her husband Frantzy in
November last year and her application to sponsor him to live in Canada was
approved earlier in January. However, the second stage of the visa application,
which should provide Frantzy with permanent residency in Canada, has been passed
for processing in Haiti’s Port-au-Prince Canadian embassy.
Officials at
the embassy claim it could be as long as three months before the application is
even looked at, by which time Gala is afraid her husband will be hurt, become
ill or will simply starve.
Although Frantzy survived the earthquake that
flattened most of the homes in his area, Gala is aware the country is not safe,
“they said to call back in three weeks to a month. That is not good enough. Food
will not last that long.”
The problems are typical of those experienced
by the families of Haitians who want their relatives to be able to move to
Canada and live in safety. Although Canadian immigration said applications from
these families will be expedited, there have been claims that not enough is
being done to move them to Canada quickly.
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