It’s written in bold letters on the official letter: if she does not attempt to restore her immigration status, she must leave Canada “immediately.”
Laurence Ameline, a 53-year-old French nurse, never imagined that she could become without status in Canada when the Quebec government came to recruit her in France. But after three years of working at the CHUM in Montreal, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) refused to extend his work permit on March 2. She therefore immediately lost her right to work.
“I have always been straight, I never had any particular problem,” she now feels obliged to mention. But since this refusal letter, “it’s hell,” she says in an interview with The duty. “They come to find us in France, because there is a lot of shortage of nurses in the country, and they put obstacles in our way,” she laments.
Passed by Recrutement Santé Québec, she arrived in February 2021 to work in the pulmonology department of the CHUM. When the COVID-19 pandemic was still very present, it quickly took off.
Together with her employer, last October she began the process of renewing her work permit before it expired. Everyone then promises her that it is just a “simple formality” and that she is a “priority”, given her profession.
But at the beginning of March, she received a heavy blow: IRCC refused her request. The reason given? She would not have provided her employer’s job offer number, which she claims to have done. Before she submitted this request in November, the human resources department had taken the time to register it on the employer portal of the same ministry, proof that The duty was able to consult. The number thus generated was included as soon as the extension request was submitted, she confirms.
Administrative error? Mess up? Computer problems? IRCC was unable to answer our questions at the time of writing.
Laurence Ameline then contacted her employer, then the office of the MP for her constituency. Nothing works. In the interview, she shakes her head, still stunned: “I just don’t understand. »
It is also that it is almost impossible to obtain more information on your own request. “We are completely powerless against this wall of immigration,” underlines Mme Ameline. Even the constituency office, with a dedicated line at its disposal, cannot resolve the matter: “When [l’adjoint au bureau du député] calls Immigration, there is only someone behind a computer who has no more information. »
Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard also noted this impossibility in her most recent report, entitled An untenable status quo, which harshly scolds IRCC. Tens of thousands of immigrants are now going through access to information requests to obtain basic information about their own files. However, this information belongs to them, specified M.me Maynard.
From rigidity to the end of inadmissibility
Without work, without income, she feels very anxious. “I have friends here, but ultimately, we are alone in the boat. I have to continue to pay my bills,” says Laurence Ameline, her voice trembling momentarily. His eyes glaze over behind his bright red glasses, just before his cat approaches.
However, she had come here to stay, with the illusion that people were waiting for her with open arms to fill the famous labor shortage. “I wasn’t going to leave everything in France if there wasn’t a great promise,” illustrates the woman. She also submitted an application for permanent residence at the same time, for which Quebec has already approved her. There is no indication that the final steps for this application will allow him to regularize his situation before the June 2 deadline given by IRCC.
After having a career in the health field in her country of origin, she completed her training in 2013 as a clinical nurse. She then worked in a pulmonology department, as she would later do in Montreal. It was a friend who spoke to her in 2020 about the thousands of nurses wanted here: “My children were grown up, I was alone, I took steps. »
When Recrutement Santé Québec presented her with several job offers while she was still in office, she was far from imagining that she could become without status in Canada. “You do not have temporary resident status in Canada,” it is nevertheless clearly indicated on the letter from IRCC.
“I understand all that, the requirements, it has to be secure, and Canada does not want people without all the justifications,” says Mme Ameline. But she feels left in the lurch, even overlooked: “The person at immigration behind their computer has the power over your future. She doesn’t know what it’s like to wait for papers, to find yourself without work, without pay, from one day to the next. »
“I don’t understand why I didn’t receive an email at least to tell me to return these papers within 7 days, it would have been simple,” she suggests. The support received from his employer and the MP’s office may lead to his work permit being renewed on time. Or perhaps her application for permanent residence will be approved in record time, but she continues to doubt it.
For immigration lawyer Maxime Lapointe, there is a simple solution within IRCC’s reach. “Why not give the chance to produce a missing document within 30 days before stupidly closing the file? » he said.
Unable to comment directly on M’s situationme Ameline, he nevertheless notices a certain rigidity in these cases where an additional document could have resolved the problems. Me Lapointe calls on the responsible authorities to consider the “irreparable harm” caused by the loss of a status, since “labor law falls”, he notably underlined in a book published in September 2023.