Canadian father struggling to get his baby into the country
Multiple residency applications remain in limbo
Lincoln Sekkappan has been sitting in front of his computer in Regina every day for months anxiously waiting for his 11-month old daughter's Canadian residency application to be approved.
Sekkappan is a Canadian citizen. His wife Kamalam Elangovan has permanent residency in Canada. Unfortunately for them, Elangovan gave birth to their daughter Avira Mutho in India while on a trip visiting her parents.
Nearly a year later, the couple is still living worlds apart.
"Right now my wife can come to Canada because she is a permanent resident. I am a Canadian citizen, I can go and come. But my kid doesn't have anything," Sekkappan said. "So as a result the only option we have is we can abandon our kid in India like an orphan."
Two of the baby's residency applications have been rejected. The first one was rejected because the couple didn't include necessary consent forms in the application, and it's been downhill since then.
"We got this child after four and a half years of our marriage, and being separated is difficult. We didn't think that the process was going to be that long," Elangovan said.
She said it's mentally exhausting to be alone in India with their daughter and without the support of her husband.
After the first rejection, Sekkappan uploaded the missing documents and resubmitted the application. But it was rejected again for not having the consent forms, which Sekkappan said are clearly included in the file.
"Whatever document they are saying is missing, it's already there in that application. They are not even going through that properly. And the second thing is like there is no transparency in their process."
Sekkappan said he called the immigration department's customer line for help, and was told to submit a brand new application in addition to the one he already submitted.
"They are saying the second application cannot be accepted because the previous application is active. But technically that application is not moving anywhere. The second one is not moving anywhere. So then I totally gave up," he said.
Sekkappan said he received a letter from the immigration department saying both his applications have been rejected, but on the online portal the initial application still says "submitted."
He said he's currently living with his friends in Regina because he does not want to be alone with his thoughts. He said he has lost trust in the immigration process and his mental health is being affected negatively.
"My kid started walking, talking, blabbering and all that stuff, but I don't have those fortunate moments to share with them. I don't know what to say exactly, my feelings at times hurt too much," Sekkappan said.
Immigration lawyer Chris Veeman said multiple factors are at play here.
First, the parents did not follow instructions perfectly, which led to the initial rejection, and now the immigration department can't seem to explain the next steps needed for approval.
Veeman said immigration is not an easy process, and that human error and now technical troubles are creating a lot of chaos. He said the family may need professional help to finalize the application.
"I think the key is to figure out exactly what's going on with that resubmitted [permanent residency] application, because it does seem like it's in the system. If they can get confirmation that that is the case, despite the letter that they got that it's going to be processed, that's probably the first thing."
He said that Sekkappan has been interacting a lot with immigration authorities and while that might be helpful sometimes, other times it can be counterproductive. He suggested having some patience might be a better approach.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
