Trouble With Canada's Immigration System

Over six years ago I was retained by physician, from a top California hospital and one of their leading surgeons, to prepare and submit an immigration application on his behalf as a skilled worker to come to Canada. The application was normal in all respects other than that physician was born in Egypt but later came to the United States. In the course of the time that the application has been pending at the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo, the physician and his family applied for, were approved and obtained U.S. citizenship. Meanwhile the Canadian application has been held up for reasons that have not been disclosed to us other than a 2006 the Canadian Consulate scribbled note in response to a fax I sent them inquiring about the case in which they indicated that “We have requested information from other government offices. Unfortunately we cannot respond to requests for the status of your application before this info is received.” We appreciated the note very much, but have not received anything since then. I have written follow up letters all the way up to the Prime Minister's office but the case is still unresolved today, March 2nd, 2010.

Frankly, in reviewing this file from time to time I must admit I am revolted by the treatment this physician has received. In six years Canada has been unable to make a simple decision as to whether or not it wants a top surgeon like him to come there. Of course I mentioned to the doctor that we could bring an action in Federal Court to compel the Canadian Consulate to decide this case, but he did not feel that approach was appropriate. He continues to hope that Canada will finally make the decision and it will favour him. I am not so sure any more.

To illustrate just how perverse this case is, take by way the analogy of the Desert Storm war in the Middle East in 1991. President H. Bush mounted an international campaign in which he gained the cooperation of over a dozen nations, organized hundreds of thousands of troops and raised millions of dollars to conduct and win the war - all in just in 48 days! Yet this Canadian government cannot make up its mind about a single immigration case in over six years! This is how Canada's immigration system is run, and apparently it does not trouble the leadership, not even the Prime Minister!