ABBOTSFORD – An Indo-Canadian couple from Abbotsford are fighting to get a family member to Canada due to a health-care emergency.
Visakha Singh Brar is scheduled to give a kidney to his wife next month but the couple doesn’t have anyone to help them with post-surgery recovery after Citizenship and Immigration Canada denied a visitor visa for Brar’s brother in India.
“We were told we would need two to three months bed rest and all my family members are in India,” Brar told CBC in an interview in his native Punjabi language.
A doctor’s letter provided to CBC estimates a three-month recovery for Visakha and a six-month recovery for his wife, Ravinder.
“I don’t have anyone here to help me or my child and the healthcare providers suggested I could bring a brother or sister from India to help out.”
Brar’s wife Ravinder has a 70-year-old mother, who lives with the couple and their 10-year-old son, but he says she’s not capable of providing the level of care required, reported CBC News.
“If it was just me having surgery or just my wife, I could take care of her or she could take care of me but we’re having it at the same time — we don’t have a choice,” said the Canadian citizen.
“Even at night we’ll need someone to help us through the difficult recovery. Even with our child, we may need help.”
According to a letter the family received from immigration officials, Brar’s brother has “not satisfied me [immigration officer] that you would leave Canada at the end of your stay as a temporary resident.”
Reasons cited include “travel history,” “family ties in Canada and in country of residence, current employment situation” and “personal assets and financial status.”
Brar’s brother Gurchet has a wife and three children in India and a farming business.
The CBC has viewed the application submitted to CIC which shows property and income certificates worth more than $500,000.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada wouldn’t elaborate on the reasons for its decision citing privacy concerns.
Brar’s immigration lawyer, Jasdeep Mattoo, says despite a detailed application which included letters of support from health officials and members of Parliament as well as employment and financial records, the visitor visa was denied.
“I was surprised just because of the strength of this application, the humanitarian and compassionate reasons were just so overwhelming,” said Mattoo.
“I couldn’t fathom that they would get a no.”
Matoo says the reasons for refusal provided by CIC are quite common, but this case is “shocking.”
“They gave his employment situation and whether or not he would be returning to India [as a reason for refusal], which I found to be really, really astounding in this case because he’s got three kids, they’re all in school, he’s married in India, he has his own business, he has his own home, his parents live with him in India and he’s got a cultural duty of care to them so he’s not about to abandon them,” said Mattoo.
“The whole purpose of this was to come for a few months, to let his brother [Visakha Singh Brar] and his wife get back on their feet.”
Immigration officials say visa applications are considered on a case-by-case basis.
According to data from IRCC, it receives anywhere from 900 thousand to just over 1 million visitor visa applications a year.— 18 to 20 per cent of which are refused.
For applications specifically from India, the refusal rate since 2005 has hovered between 21 and 24 per cent.
However, In the first three months of 2016, the refusal rate for visitor visa applications from India is at 28 per cent — the highest it’s been in a decade.
Courtesy CBC News
