Dear Honorable Judy Sgro,
Good day, and thank you for opening my email. I’ll try to keep my issue as
brief and to-the-point as possible.
I lived in Japan from April 1997 to June 2003 with my Japanese wife and our
children on a Japanese spouse-visa.
Last March my company notified me that I might be eligible for a transfer to
Toronto. I went to the Tokyo Canadian Embassy and asked the procedures of
getting a spouse-visa for my wife so that she could legally reside with me
and our children in Canada. I was informed that there was no spouse-visa
and that if I was Japanese I could apply for a work-visa which would allow
my wife to residually get a resident visa of equal validity to my work visa
in Canada, but that because I’m a Canadian, that immigration was the only
choice for my wife.
‘, ‘Due to the time constraint I was advised to go to Canada and start an
application for immigration once I got here.
On coming to Canada my company lost the business which my position was
dependant on, and due to the precarious state that my family was in I would
not start an application for immigration for my wife until I secured a
steady income in Canada. After receiving a fairly steady income through
self-employment this year, I started an application for my wife’s Permanent
Residence on April 15th.
This situation is most inconvenient, as she cannot get public medical
coverage (despite my paying for the full-family rate). I also have to pay
$75 every time I renew her Temporary Resident Permit, not to mention all the
other benefits of residents or work-permit holders.
Why is it that spouses of work-permit holders should have an easier time
gaining residence in Canada than spouses of citizens?
I would just add that a situation like this makes repatriation to Canada
very difficult for any overseas Canadians married to non-Canadians, thinking
of coming back. I believe that immigration is very important to the
Canadian economy, but I believe that repatriation might even be more
important (on a per capita basis), as the cost of integrating these types of
‘migrants’ is much less than foreigners who may not understand Canadian
culture, society or our national-languages.
Thank you for kindly reading my email.
Sincere regards,
Nicholas Edmeades
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