Salt Spring immigration battle gains important ally
A lengthy immigration process that began three years ago and then turned into an epic legal battle for a local woman may change at last with a promise of help from MP Elizabeth May.
“It’s only since the new year that we’ve received any positive news,” Jennifer Lannan said of her Nigerian husband Johnson Emekoba’s immigration process, which seemingly ended with a rejection last August.
Lannan and Emekoba first met in South Korea in 2007. As she observes, their relationship was similar to many others: the couple met while out with friends, they lived in the same neighbourhood and they dated a while before falling in love. She was teaching English and he was running a textile export business. They were married in 2008.
Three years ago the pair thought about coming to Salt Spring for Christmas, so Emekoba was going to apply for a visitor’s visa. Learning that Canadian officials don’t like to issue these visas because of suspicions the applicant will stay on and work illegally, Emekoba decided to apply for immigrant status instead with Lannan as his sponsor.
In 2009 they started Emekoba’s immigration process in Ghana, where all of English-speaking West Africa’s applications are processed. One year later Emekoba was asked to return to Accra for an interview regarding the couple’s relationship — and was optimistically told by an agent that he could go home and be with his wife pending a routine criminal record check for his time spent in South Korea.
But as Lannan points out, the veracity of their relationship was never really a question, and the criminal record check was much more challenging than it seemed. It took them four countries and five consulates before it was accomplished. And in the end, it was being truthful about their situation that seemed to be their downfall.
“We never lied about anything — that’s what really hurts me about this situation,” Lannan said.
At issue was Emekoba’s entry and exit from South Korea — he used someone else’s information for a better chance of getting a business visa, on the advice of an agent he paid for help in Nigeria. Lannan said that is a common practice, not just in Africa but for all types of non-Western nationals trying to enter South Korea, where corruption is rampant.
At the same time, as an eldest son Emekoba was facing enormous pressure to support his family. He’s now put three siblings through university.
“It seems hard to understand in Canada, but they do overstay their visas,” Lannan said.
“They don’t want to go home. If you go to those places you can understand why they want to get out.”
During the process Lannan conceived her son Gerard, now 11 months old and the perfect model of childhood happiness — but she probably wouldn’t have thought about having a child if she had realized immigration law would keep Gerard separated from his father, whose entry visa was finally rejected last August after a two-year process.
Lannan feels the Canadian immigration system needs to be more careful about the applications it receives, and also said rejections should be communicated as early as possible. She knows of other couples who avoided the criminal record check by lying — stating they met on the internet or that their time in another country was shorter than six months, the period when the check becomes required.
“We were honest about our relationship. That was of utmost importance to me,” she said.
If she had known two years ago the application would be rejected, Lannan said she never would have returned to Salt Spring. She would probably be living in China with her husband right now, where he has moved the operational base of his export business. But since she did come back and now has a child, it’s not so easy to disengage from the life she’s built.
“You can’t just walk away anymore,” she said.
Lannan filed a request to appeal the rejection last September, and she has yet to receive a confirmation of the request, much less a date. But when something does get scheduled she’ll have a strong ally on her side in Elizabeth May.
Lannan met with the Saanich-Gulf Islands MP’s staff last fall and met May again in person when she visited Salt Spring last week. May has promised to attend an appeal as Lannan’s representative, hoping her skills as a lawyer and her high profile will help make a positive impact.
In addition to one day reuniting her family, one of Lannan’s main hopes is that Citizenship and Immigration Canada will start to make changes as recommended in the Auditor General’s 2011 report.
“It took 24 months from start to finish to be rejected — that to me seems really extreme,” she said.
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