The Hindu Business Line : Not married? Not needed in Canada

A FEW thousand techies and engineering graduates seeking immigration status to Canada are among 25,000 to 30,000 applicants impacted by a recent enactment - Immigration Refugee Protection Act.

This enactment that seeks to bring in a retrospective effect to its application has left them in limbo.

Their problem: they are young and not married and hence not wanted.

One of the other important provisions in the new enactment is that all applicants should be married and have at least four years of job experience, which was not the case in the earlier situation, according to Lt.Col. B.S. Sandhu, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of WWICS, an immigration and settlement company.

Addressing a press conference along with a Canadian attorney Mr Timothy Leahy, here on Thursday, Mr Sandhu said "the Canadian Government changed the rules in mid-process and then the immigration authorities applied those new rules to people who had already applied and paid their fees. It's like someone being in queue for three years, and when he finally gets to the front counter, he's told the rules have changed, and by the way, we are keeping your money."

Middle of 2002, the Canadian Government introduced a new immigration act and regulations which meant applicants for permanent residency filed before January 1, 2002 which have not undergone a selection decision by March 31, 2003, are liable to be put under the new legislation and would eventually mean rejection.

In a recent case, Mr Leahy, who was the chief litigator, won a landmark case and this has opened up doors for a class action lawsuit.

This also means that one of the contentions will be for damages and breach of contract.

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Not married? Not needed in Canada