Canada Immigration and Inadmissible Family Members

Most applicants are shocked to discover that if any family member is inadmissible - whether accompanying you to Canada or not - then the applicant is inadmissible as well.

This is certainly one of the least understandable of immigration rules. If your family member will not accompany you to Canada, then why should it matter if that family member has a medical condition or criminal record that keeps them out of Canada?

I believe the answer lies in the fact that once you become a permanent resident, you do have certain rights to sponsor family members, and can even try a humanitarian and compassionate application as a last ditch effort in most circumstances.

The legislation is circumventing those processes by ensuring that the applicant never becomes a permanent resident in the first place. Whatever the reason, it is a harsh rule and I think it is ripe for re-evaluation.

Here is a CBC story that illustrates the difficulties this rule creates:

MD rejected for immigration because daughter could burden medicare

October 27, 2008, CBC News

A Calgary critical-care doctor's application for permanent residency has been rejected because one of his daughters might be a drain on the health care system.

South African physician Stanley Muwanguzi says his 22-year-old daughter has been institutionalized since she was a toddler and he has no intention of moving her to Canada.

"It has been a nightmare.... [That] this is happening in Canada is truly shameful. That is the only way to put it," he said.

Muwanguzi, who works at the Peter Lougheed Hospital, has been practising in Canada since 2002.

A letter from the government sent to Muwanguzi says he doesn't meet the requirements for immigration to Canada.

The letter says that under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, a "person whose health condition, severe developmental delay associated with cerebral palsy, might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services," is inadmissible to Canada.

Since Muwanguzi's "non-accompanying family member is inadmissible to Canada," he is also "inadmissible."

Muwanguzi, who is in Canada on a temporary foreign worker permit, has appealed the determination.

A spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada said Muwanguzi's case is complicated and moving along as quickly as possible.

"Once the reviews are done and the people are consulted that have to be consulted, and that includes medical officers and whatnot, then a decision will be rendered. It would be my hope that that decision will occur sooner rather than later," Rob Ferguson said.

Doctor son also wants to immigrate

Muwanguzi said if he doesn't receive an answer soon, he will have to move to the United States.
Wendy Danson, his lawyer, said Canada needs doctors like Muwanguzi. His son in South Africa, another practising doctor, would also like to move here, she said.

"Here we have someone so skilled, who has a son equally as skilled that would join him in a flash. There is no logic behind it."

Muwanguzi, a father of five, has two daughters living with him and his wife, Susan, a teacher in Calgary, as well as two sons living in South Africa. One of his daughters is a pre-med student at the University of Alberta and is paying high international student fees of about $30,000 a year.

The couple returns to South Africa once a year to visit their sons and their daughter with cerebral palsy, who isn't capable of recognizing them or even talking. (Cerebral palsy refers to a group of neurological disorders that affect control of movement and posture and that limit activity.)

Muwanguzi said it's wrong he is being rejected "because of the notion that my daughter would be a drain on the Canadian economic system."

"I told the Immigration [Department] very clearly that I didn't want to destabilize my daughter. She has been in the same institution since she was 18 months old.… They are looking after her very well," he said. "There is no reason to move her. It would actually be detrimental."
Dan Zuege, the medical director of critical care at Peter Lougheed Hospital, has written a letter of support for Muwanguzi.

"I am very supportive of Dr. Muwanguzi's appeal for landed immigrant status and I have no doubts as to his integrity and intentions surrounding the care of his daughter and his commitment to service within the Canadian health care system," he wrote.