Last week, I was arrested by immigration and removed from Canada for overstaying a visitor visa. The reason I overstayed was so I could be with my 2 kids while I saved up to apply for permanent residency. I love my kids to death and that was my only reason for staying in Canada illegally, yet I was removed because of this, and now I can’t return to Canada for 1 year because of the exclusion order placed against me.
I have had no prior arrests in my life. I’ve never done anything in my life that would be considered bad. Of all the guys out there who get a girl pregnant and leave her, I wanted to stay with my kids and I was punished for it. During my immigration hearing in Vancouver, they basically said I needed to be rich to get through all this, which they know I’m certainly not.
Now I’m stuck 5000 miles away from my kids and pretty much everything I own except a couple changes of clothes and wondering what I can do now, which I guess isn’t much. I know I shouldn’t have overstayed my visa but I can’t afford to border hop and save up for permanent residency at the same time so I chose to stay with my kids.
Well of all do not stop touching base with the children you say that you love, where is their mother throughout all this? Do you have a good communication with her, like is everything positive between you and her? If she is ok with what your intentions are pertaining to the kids here, then she may go out and get in touch with her local MP, this way there is someone in Ottawa who may look into the whole process and your initial reasoning for your over stay. She could at least get you some addresses where you may write letters to the MP responsible for the area where your children may reside. That is all I have for now except for Good Luck and never lose sight of your children.
First of all, I sympathize with you and your situation. Being a parent myself, I would be devastated to be unable to see my kids.
You have to understand that there is a process involved in this that has to be followed no matter how good your intentions were. You admit that you willingly overstayed a visitors visa illegally. That was an extremely bad desicion to make. It is imperative that you act within the laws of Canada. Doing this was not a good first step and hopefully will not result in a long term refusal to get you back over here. I would suggest that you write a letter of apology to immigration officials outlining your intentions and ask for feedback on what it would take to have you be over here with your kids. You have to put yourself in the best possible light.
You also must be able to come over here and be stable enough that you will not be a burden on the Canadian taxpayer. That means you should get educated, save money or at least have a strong plan with goals on how you will get there. You have a year now to get yourself in a better position. It will be tough but a year will go by quickly. Being able to be back with your kids will be worth the wait.
Try not breaking the laws of our country next time. I really cant bring myself to feel bad for you.
You knowingly broke the law and now you have to face the consequences. Work your ass off for the year and come back when you can and as often as you can (legally obviously).
You’ve already taught your children its ok to break the law if it doesn’t suit them do you really want to teach them that if they get caught doing something illegal they can just weasel their way out of it?
On the other hand if you’re a member of a minority you could always play the discrimination card like that east Indian fellow who came here with a fake passport. Just get a bunch of your friends together to violently protest and call our government racist. As far as I know he’s still in the country.
The problem with overstaying a Visa is that you’ve broken the law.
Now when you apply for immigrant status, they’ll reject you, because you’ve broken the law.
I don’t understand why people keep falling for this. It’s very easy to immigrate to Canada, it’s a very simple process, and lots of people do it every year. But when you don’t want to follow the process (either because you’ve gotten bad advice or don’t think the rules apply to you), then you need to live with the consequences.
I’ve personally helped someone with their immigration stuff. You walk into a Canadian embassy or consulate (has to be done OUTSIDE of Canada, by the way, no use coming here as a tourist and deciding you want to be an immigrant instead – you’ll need to leave the country to apply). You fill in the paperwork. There’s a points system that pretty much anybody who speaks English or French and hasn’t broken the law can qualify for. You wait, you get approval, you come to Canada.
I think you misunderstand the situation. It’s not as if I planned this all out and said, gee I think I’ll do this on purpose. I intended to fly back when my visa ran out but there was a problem and they couldn’t re-schedule my ticket for when I wanted to go back so I couldn’t afford to return so I decided to stay and be with my kids and save up for permanent residency and apply while I was in Canada.
Also, I’m not trying to weasel my way out of anything. I’m just wondering what choices I have at my disposal now that this has happened. Their mother is in the picture but she isn’t the most reliable person in the world. I love her to death but she parties a lot, which is another reason I stayed, so my kids wouldn’t be sent to a babysitter every other night.
Yea, I lost any faith I had in the Canadian immigration system when I was taken to Vancouver for my hearing. They pretty much told me I needed to be rich in order to get through my situation and be with my kids. My own duty council said to me, and I quote, “I hope you win the Power Ball or something so you can get through all this.” Even the lawyer for the government said to me, we’re not trying to keep you from your kids, yet they told me I need to go through the legal way and they know I can’t afford it. They said I’m pretty much screwed no matter what I do and all the while, my kids are in Canada, without me, and having an unreliable mother to depend on. I think they’ve only made it to school a couple times in the last 2 weeks that I have been gone. Kind of sad really.
The fact that you’re confusing immigrants with refugees shows ignorance. But I think it’s a common mistake.
You’re making some mistakes of logic.
You can’t claim to be a refugee until you are in Canada. So that’s not accurate at all. Maybe you mean immigrant in this case?
You can’t work while you’re filing a refugee case. So there’s no way for you to receive EI.
As for gang members, I’m sure there are a lot of Canadian-born members too (even some from Rupert, I’m sure).
Again, you’re confusing refugees with immigrants.
Where do we send Canadians who commit crimes? You know the crime rate amongst native-born Canadians versus people who immigrate to Canada?
You should do some reading on refugees (and the treaties Canada has signed about how we treat refugees). Then you should do some reading on immigration, and what it takes to immigrate to Canada, etc.
Because right now, you’re just very confused. Maybe its xenophobia. But in this case you’re pretty much showing that you don’t really know what you’re talking about, do you?
Something else that you should be aware of is that Canada takes in 250,000 or so immigrants a year. These people applied in their own countries, followed the point system, and have been granted immigrant status.
Canada accepted less than 20,000 or so refugees last year.
But the point stands, immigrants are not refugees, and you shouldn’t confuse the two.
My dad and I immigrated here in 1997…the whole process, if I remember correctly, started 18 months prior to that. He applied for an immigration visa a few years prior, and we got denied that time for political reasons.
A whole bunch of paperwork and documentation, screening…yada, yada…basically the whole nine yards. You need a clean record, clean bill of health…it was horrible and very stressful.
I think the thing that helped us get here was the fact my dad’s sister had been living in Canada for fifteen years already. One thing for sure, we were definitely not a rich family. Just took a lot of time and patience to deal with it all.
Now, of course, this was ten years ago. I am sure some things within immigration have changed. Best of luck to you, try your hardest. Sounds like your kids need you.
Are you banned from Canada now? Or can you still visit?
Why didn’t you renew your tourist Visa (just a matter of going to Alaska and back) while you were here? Can’t one do that indefinitely (ie: every 6 months, drive to Alaska and leave Canada, then come back again on a tourist Visa)?
I think you need to look at appeals, especially on humanitarian grounds. It may be easier for these kinds of appeals to come from your kids (or wife, etc). Are you married to your wife? Is she a Canadian citizen? Are your kids Canadian citizens?
Yea, in order to even apply I need to be sponsored which my gf could do, except she’s on welfare atm. She has a job but only works 1 day a week, not enough to get off welfare. Since she’s on welfare, she can’t sponsor me. I just found that out at the hearing I had in Vancouver. I guess I’m stuck sitting here in the States for a year, hoping my kids don’t forget about me.
[quote=“MiG”]
Are you banned from Canada now? Or can you still visit?
Why didn’t you renew your tourist Visa (just a matter of going to Alaska and back) while you were here? Can’t one do that indefinitely (ie: every 6 months, drive to Alaska and leave Canada, then come back again on a tourist Visa)?
I think you need to look at appeals, especially on humanitarian grounds. It may be easier for these kinds of appeals to come from your kids (or wife, etc). Are you married to your wife? Is she a Canadian citizen? Are your kids Canadian citizens?[/quote]
Yes, they are Canadian citizens. My kids were born in Canada. I tried several times to renew my visitor visa by calling the number that they gave me when I crossed into Canada but I could never get through. I even mentioned this to my duty council when I met with him and he said that’s a problem they have and even people that go into the actual office in Vancouver sometimes don’t even get in.
As I mentioned before, I intended to leave when my visa was up, but there was a problem with rescheduling, as in I couldn’t and as I also said before, I couldn’t afford to border hop and save up to apply for permanent residency so I resigned to staying and saving up to apply.
Well to be blunt , first off yes or no the reason that you were arrested and later deported was due to the fact that you hit or punched the woman you were staying with , correct … why is it now your are trying to gain sympathy by giving everyone the I love my kid’s routine and i miss them , i did try to get my visitor’s visa renewed but i could never get through … boo-hoo cry me a river , if your looking for sympathy because you broke two of Canada’s laws by over staying your Visitor’s Visa then getting into a dispute with your common - law wife broadcast all over the scanner’s that everyone has in Prince Rupert , you won’t get any from me … So do us all a favour and stop whining , woman beater from the U.S.A. …
You’re cute. Did you create a new account just to try and talk crap? I didn’t hit anyone, but nice try on acting like you have a clue. I’m not trying to gain sympathy from anyone and you think I would lie about saying I love and miss my kids? If you do, you’re more retarded than I think you are. Just because your parents don’t love you, doesn’t mean all parents are like that.
Well if this for real you should get a sponsor letter that states the same BS you speak…Moreover, since you have lived here your file will always say ur present…Makes me think you are full of shit…Immigration doesnt extradite, they invite?
I feel sorry for the kids. Being separated from a parent is a bad thing for them. I don’t have much sympathy for a parent who puts their kids in a situation like this. You choose the “head in the sand” technique of dealing with this and you got burned. You give a lot of excuses for why you didn’t act properly, but they just don’t wash. You tried “several times” to renew your visa? Well pardon me, but clearly several times wasn’t good enough. With nothing else more important in your life you could have tried a lot more than several times. Also, there was a rescheduling problem? What the hell does that even mean?
I understand you’re looking for options, but given the poor choices you made there really aren’t any.
Half of us? Bullshit. As far as I’m concerned he’s proven just how valuable he would be to Canada. We have enough people as it is who can’t look after themselves, and pump out babies. If he’s too stupid to maintain a visa then exactly what makes him enough of an asset to Canada that he should be allowed to move here? There are a ton of people every year trying to get into Canada who would be a genuine asset to the country. Those are the people I care about the system screwing over.
