U.S. travel ban uncertainty has Ottawa woman afraid to visit husband

An Ottawa woman originally from Iran worries it could be months — or even longer — before she can see her husband because of the U.S. travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries.

Elaheh Askari is an immigrant from Iran who works in Ottawa's high-tech industry and has permanent resident status. Her husband, Navid Tadayon, just began a two-year post-doctoral scholarship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology three weeks ago.

While the Prime Minister's Office said this weekend Canadian citizens and permanent residents can travel freely to the United States despite U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping immigration order, there still appears to be confusion on the ground about who can cross the border and residents like Askari say they are afraid to take chances.

Askari planned to visit her husband every two months while he's at MIT. But with Trump's new executive order impacting Iranian-born people like her, she says that's now unlikely.

"I'm just worried I won't be able to see my husband for a long time, and it has emotional impacts on me, on him," she said.

"I think it's racist," said Askari​. "I feel disgraced, disrespected, and I feel like all of this is against humanity."

• Trump's travel ban prompts human chain protest at U.S. Embassy in Ottawa
• Ottawa residents with ties to travel ban countries still worried

Askari joined more than a thousand other demonstrators outside the U.S. Embassy in downtown Ottawa on Monday to form a human chain around the building to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order signed last week imposing the ban on entry into the United States.

"We are very upset about that law, and we have a lot of people that get hurt from this law," said Samer Kadri, who came to Canada as a refugee from Syria in 1988.

'Stressed, angry, disappointed'

Kadri said one of his cousins was supposed to fly to the U.S. on the weekend, but was turned away from boarding a flight in Turkey.

"His family and his kids (are) in the United States, and he can't join them," he said.

Kadri, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, still has reservations about whether he'll be able to visit family in Michigan and California.

"It makes me here in Canada very scared," he said.

Askari said the travel ban is already taking a huge toll on her and her husband. "We are both stressed, angry, disappointed and it's hard to concentrate on our job."

While she has a U.S. visa valid for three months to visit her husband, she said she is concerned she won't be able to use it because of the travel ban. It's a frustrating situation for the young couple.

"We are both academic people," said Askari. "I did my grad school here. My husband has his PhD, and he's doing post-doc in one of the top rated universities in the U.S. So it's pretty hard.

"I'm hoping that people stand up against this and resolve it."

With files from Ashley Burke