Trapped in red tape
Can Nova Scotia’s bureaucracy free a muchneeded Iranian family from what seems a strict-adherence-to-the-rules Catch-22?
We know that Nova Scotia needs immigrants.
As outlined by the Herald’s Noushin Ziafati in a June 26 story, Mehran Farrokhrouz, his wife Foroozan Moslemi and their son Aryana Farrokhrouz answered that call and moved to this province from Tehran in April, 2019 — Mehran and Foroozan via the entrepreneur immigration stream, their son on a visitor’s visa.
The family set up in Truro.
Under the entrepreneur stream, Mehran and Foroozan were expected to eventually invest $150,000 in the province, among other requirements, before becoming permanent residents.
The couple started two businesses in Truro, Saffron Restaurant and Aryana Building and Renovation, creating a handful of jobs. In their first year, they say they invested the roughly $100,000 they were able to bring to Nova Scotia. The family also has funds in Iran.
Everything seemed on course for the family to meet its requirements.
Then, tougher sanctions on banking transactions between Canada and Iran last year cut off the family’s ability to transfer more money from his former country. But Mehran says provincial immigration officers agreed last fall that spending his funds still in Iran on overseas work related to his businesses here, like web page design and marketing, would qualify to meet the provincial program’s investment goals.
Mehran estimates he spent $65,000 that way. He believed his family had fulfilled Nova Scotia’s requirements.
In April, the family applied — as eligible to do after 12 months — for permanent residency, a process that can take more than a year.
By then, the province was in lockdown due to the coronavirus. The family’s businesses suffered sharp downturns.
To his surprise, Mehran says, provincial immigration officials denied the overseas spending was eligible. After discussion, he says they agreed to accept them, but insisted on a financial audit to verify receipts, etc., before their application for permanent residency could go forward.
With little revenue coming from the family’s businesses, and unable to access his funds in Iran, Mehran says he can’t afford the $17,000 estimated cost.
Meanwhile, because his family are not permanent residents and their companies are relatively new, Mehran says they can’t access most government programs designed for businesses hit by the pandemic. To fate, they’ve received about $1,500. Their status also makes financial institution loans unavailable. Bottom line, they are in financial limbo. Finally, because the family’s son is here on a visitor’s visa, Aryana cannot work and does not have health insurance. Given COVID-19, that’s obviously concerning.
Mehran says due to their financial crunch, and concern for his son’s health, if their immigration file does not proceed, they will soon be forced to leave Canada.
So an immigrant family aspiring to become an asset to a new country seems now caught between a rock (little income due to the pandemic) and a hard place (little eligibility for assistance because they are not permanent residents).
Surely a better outcome is possible.