Newcomer awaits reunion with stranded family

“Sometimes they ask me, ‘Is there something wrong? Have you given up on us?’ They feel as though their father has left them and went to Canada.”

Gaurav Sadh Indian immigrant

All Gaurav Sadh says he wanted when he decided to uproot his life in India and immigrate to Canada was a better life for his children. As did his wife Sakshi Sadh.

“What we were hoping for was to have a much better future for our children here,” said Gaurav Sadh.

But the COVID-19 pandemic and Canadian bureaucracy drastically changed those plans — instead leaving Gaurav Sadh alone in Halifax and anxiously waiting for the arrival of his family.

The husband and wife landed in Halifax as permanent residents on Feb. 10 to “set up (their) house” before bringing their two children — who had confirmation of permanent residence (COPR) — here, according to Gaurav Sadh.

Sakshi Sadh then flew back to Mumbai on March 16 to bring their 12-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son to Halifax on a March 23 flight. The mother and her two children packed up their belongings and prepared for the move.

Then, a day before that flight, India cancelled all international flights due to the pandemic.

As time went on, airlines started to offer flights from India to Canada again, but at first, only Canadian citizens and permanent residents were able to book them. As Gaurav and Sakshi Sadh's children only had COPRS, they were unable to travel to Canada.

On April 25, the children's COPRS expired, complicating the process even more.

AUTHORIZATION STRUGGLES

Although Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced this summer that holders of expired COPRS could come to Canada, they must first get an authorization letter from the federal immigration department, which Gaurav Sadh said he has struggled to obtain.

He said he's applied to extend their COPRS four times already. Despite multiple attempts to reach out to IRCC and a local MP'S office to check on the status of the applications and speed up the process, Gaurav Sadh said he's still had no luck.

“I got a reply in the first week of November from the immigration minister's office that said, ‘Yeah, we checked your file, everything is in order, we understand that your family is ready to travel and you will have to wait until somebody picks up your file,” he said.

Now, separated from his children for nine months and counting, Gaurav Sadh is still waiting.

“I'm just talking to a wall. It's so frustrating. You don't know who to contact,” he said.

‘IT’S DEPRESSING FOR US’

Gaurav Sadh said he feels “terrible” because he has never lived apart from his family “for so long.” Everyday, when he calls his wife and kids, he said his son and daughter repeatedly ask him how long it will take for them to be reunited. But lately, it seems like they've lost hope.

“Sometimes they ask me, ‘Is there something wrong? Have you given up on us?' They feel as though their father has left them and went to Canada,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Sakshi Sadh is confined to her home with her children, whom she and her husband pulled out of school in March to prepare for their move to Canada.

“My kids are very much missing their father ... and they're not going to school right now,” she said.

“It's very depressing for us.” In her downtime, Sakshi Sadh checks different Facebook groups she's in, like one called Canadians Stranded in India and another called COPR Holders for Canada, to read up on other stories of families who have been separated amid the pandemic.

And the stories are abundant, according to Gaurav Sadh.

He said there are “many in much, much more terrible situations than I am in,” such as one family from India who “sold their house, quit their jobs, booked their flights and everything shut down.”

“It's a big pause on their life. They don't know what to do,” he added.

Gaurav and Sakshi Sadh's “worst fear” is that they will have to spend another nine months — or longer — apart.

“We are hoping to come to Canada as fast as we can … so we can be altogether, the four of us,” said Sakshi Sadh.

IMMIGRATION SYSTEM ‘STRUGGLING’

Halifax immigration lawyer Lee Cohen said the Canadian immigration system in “the best of circumstances does not handle irregularity very well” and now it is “fraught full of irregularities” and “struggling” due to the pandemic.

“Processing times are out of whack, (IRCC)'S published processing times are not reliable and they will say themselves, ‘We just can't tell you how long it's going to process this or that,' because their backlog is so substantial,” he said.

But in the case of the Sadhs and others with expired COPRS, he said it does not make sense why “those letters of authorization are not being issued quickly,” given they expired at no fault of the COPR holders.

Cohen noted he's always argued that IRCC is “understaffed” and that there are “fewer, fewer people to process more and more paper.” He added the federal government's “grand plan” to bring in about 400,000 immigrants to Canada each year over the next few years “is a great idea,” but said it's “not achievable if there aren't enough people to process paper.”

He said many of his clients are becoming increasingly impatient about various applications.

“People's nerves are starting to fray and there's frustration with the slow pace of progress,” said Cohen.

Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan recently issued a letter to IRCC highlighting challenges prospective Canadians are facing, including those with expired COPRS.

“Instead of re-processing applications that have already gone through all the steps of being approved for PR, I am urging you to automatically renew and honour COPRS that have expired over the course of the pandemic,” Kwan wrote.

“This would not only reduce the frustrations and uncertainty experienced by the applicants, it would also decrease the demand on IRCC, allowing IRCC resources to be better used on other application streams struggling with processing delays ...”

According to IRCC spokeswoman Lauren Sankey, IRCC has been relying on clients writing through a web form since July 29 to indicate they are ready to travel to Canada, allowing IRCC to extend COPRS as long “as long as reasons to travel are non-discretionary.” The federal government lists examples of the definition of non-discretionary travel online.

According to Sankey, IRCC has been in touch with at least 3,100 primary applicants or their representatives, which represents a total of 5,900 people holding expired COPRS, “to determine their eligibility and willingness to travel to Canada within an allotted time” since August 2020.

Of that total, Sankey said “at least 400” have become permanent residents thus far.

“IRCC recognizes it's important to keep families and loved ones together — particularly during difficult times,” she said in an email.

TIM KROCHAK • THE CHRONICLE HERALD Gaurav Sadh of Halifax displays a family photo of himself, his wife Sakshi, daughter Krisha and son Vivaan, taken last October. His family has been left stranded in India since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.