Son’s immigration: Canadian NRI couple gets support online
Saturday, 07/02/2015
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
OTTAWA: Things have been looking up for Daksh Sood. Though the immigration department has so far stuck to its guns in refusing to allow the three-and-a-half-yearold Indian boy into Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, even as his parents have been living here as permanent residents since early 2013, the Sood family’s dilemma has not gone unnoticed.
An online petition posted on www.change.org on January 25 about the plight of Daksh’s mother Bhavna Bajaj and father Aman Sood, has so far garnered support from about 6,280 people in Canada and countries around the world. It is hoped the petition and comments left on it by supporters will help sway citizenship and immigration minister Chris Alexander into action.
An email sent in November by Bhavna and Aman to people who they thought could help them including Ottawa West-Nepean MP John Baird, eventually found its way to immigration. On Tuesday, an email from immigration said the matter was before the Federal Court. However, the case is not before the court anymore.
The couple failed to disclose they had a young son and their intentions to sponsor him before they left India for Canada in January 2013. Bajaj and Sood applied for permanent residency when Daksh was not yet born. They say they raised their son’s birth with their immigration consultant before they left, but were told to apply to sponsor the child once they arrived here.
Instead, they got a horrible surprise when they landed in Montreal. Not only would they not be able to bring Daksh to Canada once they settled in Ottawa, they were being threatened with immediate deportation unless they signed a document that they would never attempt to sponsor him for permanent residency. They say they signed the document in haste and confusion.
