By Nicholas Keung, the Star | Link to Article
Karla Piedrasanta applied in 2008 to bring her husband from Morocco to join her in Canada.
By Nicholas Keung, the Star | Link to Article
Karla Piedrasanta applied in 2008 to bring her husband from Morocco to join her in Canada.
Despite a successful appeal two years ago that overturned an immigration officer’s decision to reject her spousal sponsorship, the Mississauga woman is still waiting for Abderrahim Chakir to be granted a permanent resident visa.
Amin, the child that Piedrasanta conceived during her last visit to Morocco in 2011, is already 19 months old and still has not met his father.
“It is emotionally and financially devastating,” said Piedrasanta, 35, who works full time as a customs agent for a courier company while caring for Amin.
“Every year we hope we will be together. We are doing everything we can to comply with the application process. My husband is missing our son growing up.”
Piedrasanta said she needs the support of Chakir. Of her $2,000 monthly income, $729 goes to rent and $720 for Amin’s daycare, she said.
“I don’t have a (telephone) landline. It costs me $1 a minute to Morocco on my cellphone on emergency,” said Piedrasanta, who talks to her husband, 40, a retail clerk, on the Internet every night despite the time difference.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada said the couple’s application was held up after officials, in May 2012, “discovered that (Chakir) may have a medical condition that could pose a risk to the health and safety of Canadians, and would make him inadmissible to Canada.” It said no documents relating to their file have been lost.
“It was determined that Mr. Chakir has a medical condition that requires treatment. CIC has informed Mr. Chakir that once he can demonstrate that he has received treatment and that his condition no longer poses a risk to the Canadian public, CIC will reassess his medical file and his application,” a department spokesperson said.
Piedrasanta said her husband was asked twice to go through additional medical tests for tuberculosis, and she showed the Star results of both tests, which came back negative.
“He did all the bloodwork and saliva tests. He didn’t have TB and he doesn’t have TB,” said Piedrasanta.
Piedrasanta met Chakir, 40, over the Internet in 2006 after they were introduced by her co-worker, her husband’s brother. He proposed to her online in November 2007, and the two were married in Morocco the following February, at their first meeting in person.
Read more http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2014/03/04/immigration_red_tape_leaves_wife_of_six_years_raising_her_son_alone_in_canada.html#