You went through this as a Canadian who was born in Canada and who is a native speaker. Now, imagine how those same officers would treat someone who is new in Canada.
Dorothea1 said:Hi Can somebody please tell me what is going on?
I am a Canadian citizen who met my husband in Germany where I was teaching English four years ago. We married in Germany and then last year I decided that I wanted to return to Canada so that I could complete my degree. My husband agreed to come with me, and so I sponsored him through the family class. We received the approval in principal, his open work permit, and my approval of sponsorship on December 12th 2012. Then in March 2013 his medical/security checks were cleared. He received a letter of invitation to 200 Catherines Street in Ottawa.Ontario to have his landing day appointment processed. When there we were asked to pay the landing fee of $490.00 however we had the receipt of online payment with us, which the agent would not accept.The CIC agent then commented that if we would overpay the overpayment balance would be reimbursed. I shook my head No. She was then able to locate a scanned copy and we were asked to sit down. We waited another ten minutes and then were called up to their counter again and asked to provide ID. My husband's ID was fine, but my G1 Drivers License still had our old address because I changed the address on line. I did have my SIN Card and passport though. The agents asked us to go home and retrieve a utility bill. Since we pay our bills online we only had a welcome letter from Bell, but I brought about eight other documents showing that I resided at that address. When we drove back to the office they again refused these documents. We were then directed to go to Ottawa City Hall and retrieve proof that I had changed my address online. This we received and again brought it back to the office. This was again refused even though it clearly stated from the manager that I had changed my address online for both my health card and drivers license. They did not process my husband's landing appointment and left us with the statement "We will be sending you a letter." When questioned what their names were they refused to give them and they also refused to say when we would receive this letter. My husband and I were absolutely devastatedsince this whole process had been extremely draining for us both. We left the office and immediately went to our local Federal MP, where we presented all the aforementioned documents. We mailed correspondence to Vegreville, AB, we emailed Diane Finlay, who transferred our email to Jason Kenney. We notified the RCMP with regards to the unusual request for money initially at the CIC office, when we had already paid the landing fee, and finally we notified an immigration lawyer, who stated that she had never heard of this before. We phoned the CIC call center number to make a formal complaint. On May 22nd, 2013 an investigator called me to firstly apologize and then to confirm that we would be getting a second landing day appointment. When I called them back at the end of the week for the update, I was told that the Supervisors of the call center are directing the supervisors of 200 Catherines Street to schedule a second landing date appointment for my husband, however they are not getting through to 200 Catherines Street. It looks like I will now have to pay an immigration lawyer to enforce the scheduling of a second landing appointment, since the 200 Catherines street office is not complying witheir own procedures. I am so utterly frustrated that I even emailed the Ottawa Citizen and PM Harper himself. How can something like this possibly ever happen in Canada ?
