Hi. My name is sydney. I am 17 years old and planning to graduate from high school with a dual credit film program. I have been living in BC for almost 3 years now. My mother and stepfather reside with me as well. My mother married my stepfather in 2008 after a year or two of dating. Then we moved from America to Canada so my stepfather could work and see us more. We obtained visitors passes and then I went on to get a study permit. During this time, we found a lawyer who said he would handle our immigration case. He seemed confident. We got our Landed Immigrant Status application finished and signed after a gruelling period of getting the right pictures for our application. (We had to go back for pictures 3 times and had to pay for all these photos that were basically worthless to us.) We paid for all our fileing fees and the other fees that went along with this process as well, our lawyer assured us that we had finished this application and that it would be sent off immidiently. Three months later, after hearing nothing from our lawyer and no letters from Canadian Immigration my stepfather finally calls the lawyer to check in on the status of our papers. He informs us he has not sent our papers and that we have to pay him 900$ in lawyer service fees before he will send it off. We do this. More time goes by with no word. Our papers are near experation so we decide to set up an appointment with the lawyer. He gets an extension on our papers, he tells us we are only allowed one extension. We ask about our application status and he lets us know that we need to pay more fees to Canadian Immigration for our papers to be sent in, filed, and accepted for examination. We pay the fees and begin to question the lawyer's ability to handle the case. We had already gone this far with the application so we kept our heads down and did as we were told to do. Months later, with again no word from anybody and our papers have reached experation date. We rush to the lawyer to ask him what we are supposed to do. Leave the country or stay and file for another visa? He tells us that we need to stay in Canada and go about with our lives. He assures that since the Landed Immigrant application has been sent in that we will be fine and will not get kicked out of the country. He tells us that if we were to leave Canada at that time that the border would not let us back in. This is where we should have seeked help elsewhere.
No one in my mother's family or mine has ever left America. No friends have ever left America and we didn't know anyone who was from outside the states. We believed we had done everything correct so far....
A Year goes by. A letter comes in the mail. One for me and one for my mom. The canadian immigration logo is on front. We believed these would be our Landed Immigrant Status papers finally. Wrong.
We were schedualed for an immigration interview in vancouver. I get excited seeing as I had never been to vancouver yet and I was planning on going to Capilano College there next year. We get to the interview in high hopes of finally getting our Landed Immigrant status papers. They drop a bomb on us by informing us we are getting a removal order set against us and that we are to be out of the country in two months.
Baffled, we question why this is happening. Apparently, we were supposed to leave when our lawyer told us to stay. Now I am left here with less than two months to spend going to my classes and getting in as much time with my group of friends and my boyfriend of almost two years.
I came to Canada to begin a new life. A new dad who has been more of a father to me than my own biological one is now being torn apart from his wife and stepdaughter. A new school where teachers actually try to help you with education and life. and new friends who aren't out to use you. and a new community full of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet with a more cleaner and extremly safer enviorment. I can walk down the streets of my small town and not have to worry about getting raped, kidnapped, or murdered. Where I come from you can't even walk down the street without some sort of protection and growing up in the states I wasn't even allowed to play in my front yard without adult supervision (and I was living in the nicer area of town at that time). Canada has changed me for the greater good and now they want to kick me out. It feels like a slap in the face. I was 15 when I moved here and was not allowed to handle my own immigration case. What was I supposed to do? What do I do now? I want to graduate and live a happy life with my boyfriend and friends close to me. I am going to try and appeal this removal order. Hopefully I can stay here in my home. Please, if anyone has any advice they can give then let me know. Thank you for your time.
No one in my mother's family or mine has ever left America. No friends have ever left America and we didn't know anyone who was from outside the states. We believed we had done everything correct so far....
A Year goes by. A letter comes in the mail. One for me and one for my mom. The canadian immigration logo is on front. We believed these would be our Landed Immigrant Status papers finally. Wrong.
We were schedualed for an immigration interview in vancouver. I get excited seeing as I had never been to vancouver yet and I was planning on going to Capilano College there next year. We get to the interview in high hopes of finally getting our Landed Immigrant status papers. They drop a bomb on us by informing us we are getting a removal order set against us and that we are to be out of the country in two months.
Baffled, we question why this is happening. Apparently, we were supposed to leave when our lawyer told us to stay. Now I am left here with less than two months to spend going to my classes and getting in as much time with my group of friends and my boyfriend of almost two years. I came to Canada to begin a new life. A new dad who has been more of a father to me than my own biological one is now being torn apart from his wife and stepdaughter. A new school where teachers actually try to help you with education and life. and new friends who aren't out to use you. and a new community full of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet with a more cleaner and extremly safer enviorment. I can walk down the streets of my small town and not have to worry about getting raped, kidnapped, or murdered. Where I come from you can't even walk down the street without some sort of protection and growing up in the states I wasn't even allowed to play in my front yard without adult supervision (and I was living in the nicer area of town at that time). Canada has changed me for the greater good and now they want to kick me out. It feels like a slap in the face. I was 15 when I moved here and was not allowed to handle my own immigration case. What was I supposed to do? What do I do now? I want to graduate and live a happy life with my boyfriend and friends close to me. I am going to try and appeal this removal order. Hopefully I can stay here in my home. Please, if anyone has any advice they can give then let me know. Thank you for your time.
