ARTICULO

Canada’s foreign guards are no more than prejudice and power-hungry Bureaucrats

29 de Noviembre de 2017 a las 02:13

By Eduardo Harari
 
Toronto. – Since my arrival in Canada more than 25 years ago, I had always praised the service of those who served in the foreign service for their integrity, honesty and pure judgement when making decisions of our national interest.
 
Over the years, many people have told me about how difficult the process has been to obtain a Tourist Visa to either come to visit our great nation or visit relatives. Until three weeks ago, my response had always been that you must have omitted something in the application that wasn’t to clear thus giving our officials the benefit of the doubt.
 
Over the past 20+ years, I had never had the reason to question the system as I had experienced the outmost cooperation from every consulate and embassy official of our great nation when assisting individuals that were coming here for business, pleasure or for other reasons. It is not to say that all the officers are bad, but those bad apples are destroying the reputation of this country.

I believe that it is time to tell the story of those whose dreams of visiting Canada were shattered by these bad apples who hide behind our Canadian Flag to without thought tarnish the reputation of this great nation with prejudice and lack of concern for the damage they are inflicting on the people that apply to visit our country.

For the last three and a half weeks, my family has found itself in a dilemma that since there are no direct flights from Venezuela to Canada due to the political turmoil in the country. My mother-in-law is coming for her usual annual visit but this time, she has to travel through the USA to come; the only issue this time is that she will require assistance due to an ailment. My wife’s cousin volunteered to accompany her, and it would also give us a chance of seeing him after more than 15 years.
 
He proceeded to apply for his tourist visa with all supporting documents which included the purchased tickets of travel (a requirement of the Canadian Government as proof of return to one's country of origin) for a week in Canada and the letter of invitation from me in which I outlined the purpose of his trip and duration of his stay at my home. Four days later, a refusal of travel arrived in his email inbox from the Consulate General of Canada in Mexico.
 
The email outlined the reason for refusal:
 
“You have not satisfied me that you would leave Canada at the end of your stay as a temporary resident. In reaching this decision, I considered several factors, including”:
 
X travel history (must people around the world can't travel every time they want and that includes Cananadians)
immigration status in country of residence
Family ties in Canada and in country of residence Length of proposed stay in Canada
X Purpose of visit ( Visiting a new culture, country and family has become a crime)
Employment prospects in country of residence Current employment situation
X Personal assets and financial status (USD$3000.00 for a 4 day trip while staying with family is not enough. How many Canadians spend this kind of money in a week)
Having a legitimate business purpose in Canada
any history of contravening the conditions of admission on a previous stay in Canada.
 
X I am not satisfied that you have sufficient funds, including income or assets, to carry out your
stated purpose in going to Canada or to maintain yourself while in Canada and to affect your
departure. (Lets accuse all foreign visitors of breaking the law before they even arrive. Should this be a law that other countries should apply to Canada as well?)     
 
When my wife made me aware of the situation, I decided to start investigating what could be done to appeal the decision. I attempted to contact, Malcolm Campbell, a senior official in Mexico, who had assisted me in the past in dealing with this type of issues and had been very professional in his demeaner, but I received a reply that he was no longer at the post. 
 
After many calls to Ottawa and Mexico, I was referred to the Regional Director of the Consular Section, Mr. Daniel Vaughan, who told me that once a decision is made by an officer it can’t be reversed. I attempted to explain to him the urgency of the situation as my family is to travel on Dec 2nd and being that it was Nov 10th would not provide sufficient time for a new application to be submitted, approved and forthe passport to be courierd to Mexico for stamping before the departure date, but he refused to open the application for review.  He suggested that a new application be submitted and to attach all supporting documentation to the application. So, this time as to avoid language barriers since the process is executed online, I decided to file the application myself. During the process of submitting the application, I realized that there were flaws with the application as it does not allow for multiple documents to be uploaded in any section, making it impossible to provide adequate support for the application. I also noticed that there was not a place in the forms to upload a letter of employment which shows proof of return to the country of origin. 
 
I sent Mr. Vaughan an email to that effect which was never answered and not having any other recourse I filled the application with the documentation it allowed to provide. Subsequently, I sent another email to Mr. Vaughan with the application number and attaching all the supporting documents which I was not able to upload with it. 
 
Mr. Vaughan did answer to this email advising that since the application is still open all documents would be looked at. Five days later and without an update of the status, I contacted Mr. Vaughan once again and he advised that a resolution to the application was being uploaded.
 
The Visa once again was refused for the following reasons:
 
Thank you for your interest in visiting Canada. After careful review of your temporary resident visa application and supporting documentation, I have determined that your application does not meet the requirements of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) and Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR). I am refusing your application on the following grounds:
 
• I am not satisfied that you have truthfully answered all questions in the documents you have submitted in support of your application, as required by subsection 16(1) of the IRPA. Specifically, I am not satisfied that the following information is truthful: You did not disclose your recent TRV refusa (The application does not ask if you were refused a visa: it only provides a space asking if you were refused entry to Canada which would occur at any point of entry either air, sea or land)
 
• I am not satisfied that you have sufficient funds, including income or assets, to carry out your stated purpose in coming to Canada or to maintain yourself while in Canada and to affect your departure. (USD$3000.00 for a 4 day trip while staying with family is not enough. How many Canadians spend this kind of money in a week)
 
• I am not satisfied that you will leave Canada at the end of your stay as a temporary resident, as stipulated in paragraph 179(b) of the IRPR, based on your personal assets and financial status. (Lets accuse all foreign visitors of breaking the law before they even arrive. Should this be a law that other countries should apply to Canada as well?)
 
• I am not satisfied that you will leave Canada at the end of your stay as a temporary resident, as stipulated in paragraph 179(b) of the IRPR, based on the purpose of your visit. ( Visiting a new culture, country and family has become a crime)
 
• I am not satisfied that you will leave Canada at the end of your stay as a temporary resident, as stipulated in paragraph 179(b) of the IRPR, based on your family ties in Canada and in your country of residence. ( So now immigration officers are allowed to accuse Canadian citizens of breaking the law and coercing a family member to do the same. I guess that we can get rid off the local, provincial and federal police forces since we have immigration Canada to do their jobs)
  
You are welcome to reapply if you feel that you can respond to these concerns and can demonstrate that your situation meets the requirements. All new applications must be accompanied by a new processing fee. ( Visiting Canada is now a revenue making corporation that requires people to pay as many times as possible to spin the roulette.) 
 
Now truly upset with the way this application was handled, I decided to bring it to the attention of the Minister of Immigration, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen through his constituency office in York-South Weston. I spoke with one his assistants Jordan Wilson who asked me to meet with me the following morning to provide all the details of the application. To my surprise, I had to leave all the documents with someone else because Mr. Wilson was unable to attend the meeting due to other business. I was told that Mr. Wilson would give me a call later that afternoon which never happened. Over the next couple of days, I attempted to contact him, but the call was routed to voicemail. It took again three days for the return of the call and once again I was told that he believed the reason for refusal were valid. 
 
I explained to him that USD$3000.00 in my opinion sufficient currency for a 4-day trip and that in countries like Venezuela under the current situation don't have US$ around unless you purchase dollars in the Black Market at excruciating rates of exchange it makes it difficult to travel as it is. I also attempted to explain that both my mother-in-law and my cousin would reside in my home which would limit their expenses. Furthermore, if both of them had been granted US visas to travel through the US did he not think that they had asked some or more of the same questions of them before awarding the travel permits for 10 years not for the travel period Canada would offer. I also advised that my mother-in-law has a multi-entry visa to Canada and has never broken any laws or stayed more of the allowable time.     
 
I don’t seem to understand the foreign policies of Canada these days when the Minister of Foreign Affairs says something, and Immigration Canada does something totally contrary. 
 
If this is the case, why doesn’t Canada just come out cleanly and says that citizens of what countries need not apply as they will be rejected entry.
 
In this case, Immigration Canada did not only accuse a visitor of planning to commit a felony but his family and Canadian Citizens as well. It is disappointing to see the levels of Bureaucracy that exist in our country and abroad that hide behind our flag in the name of power. 
 
I will suggest that a new bill be passed through parliament, that all foreign service officials be paid in the local currency at local rates of pay as a trial period so that they experience the reality of earning and wasting valueable currency on immigration fees just to be turndown by someone in their position.  
 
It is my belief that both the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Immigration should look at how their personal is operating internationally because it's definately tarnishing the reputation of our great nation not only abroad but also at home.
 
First Refusal

 

 

 

Second Refusal

Communications with Daniel Vaughan, Consular Seccion Director, Mexico

Invitation Letter 

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