July 10, 2018

Top 10 Amusing and in Some Cases Heart Breaking Comments from Clients with Respect to Family Class Processing

In one of our publications entitled Immquest we use to run Top Ten Lists which in large part were a whimsical look at immigration law and practice. I thought given we are in the midst of summer, something a little lighter may be of interest to our readers.  The Top Ten List below was written thirteen years ago. What struck me about this piece is no matter how much changes in the world of Canadian immigration law and practice, some things stay the same. Certain comments reflect the time period of the mid two thousands but many would still be applicable today. Here is the list:

10. When was my first date…first met her family…the night I proposed? I don’t even remember to take the garbage out on Wednesdays.

9. Processing of parents can take five or more years… interesting. Can we slow it down anymore for my parents-in-law?

8. How can we be in a conjugal relationship – she lives two countries away! Why do you think I drink so much coffee?

7. I cannot sponsor my thirty year old brother or my twenty five year old sister but I can sponsor my eighty two year old grandmother?

6. I understand all my siblings qualify to be sponsored, but I really do not like my middle brother. Can we cut him from the application?

5. My wife and I eloped in France after I picked up my visa on the way to Canada. Breezed through immigration and I came straight here because I want to sponsor my new wife – what a rush!  You’re the first person we told because we wanted to keep it a surprise.

4. So my wife gets here – leaves me in two days and admits she used me to get her papers and I still have to support her for the next three years – most of which are going to pay his lawyer to divorce me?

3. No parents are still members of the family class, they’re just on a lay away program.

2. So allow me to understand this. My sister is still bumming off my parents in her thirteenth year of post-secondary education, unmarried, living at home and thirty and Canada still wants her?  But my parents don’t!

    AND THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE . . .

1. The officer writes in the refusal letter that we are physically incompatible, culturally she would not marry me because I am a divorcee and not a university graduate. Thanks!  What are they trained in?  How to destroy a marriage in ten easy lines?