Canadian Immigration apologises to Nigerian couple

Citizenship and Immigration Canada is apologizing to a Nigerian couple who have been kept apart for nearly two years because the Canadian federal government made a series of costly mistakes while processing their visa application.

“We just wanted to have the opportunity to apologize profusely for the multiple errors that have occurred in the processing of this file and for the distress and expense that has caused both of them,” departmental spokeswoman Nancy Caron said on Friday evening.

With the pains of separation and distance killing the marriage, Gideon Christian, 36, was ready to give up on his doctoral studies in law at the University of Ottawa to return to Nigeria and be with his wife after he was repeatedly frustrated in his attempts to bring her to Canada.

Christian married Isabella Chinelo Ekpunobi, 25, also a lawyer, in September 2009. Shortly after the wedding he returned to Ottawa, where the permanent resident filed a sponsorship application so his bride could join him.

They soon received confirmation the visa was being processed at the Canadian High Commission in Accra, Ghana, but nearly a year later, they received a strange request in the mail from the Canadian embassy in Paris asking Ekpunobi to undergo another medical examination — and complete an alcoholism screening test.

“The questions were so strange, because my wife doesn't even drink,” said Christian.

When the office of Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa–Vanier) contacted Citizenship and Immigration on their behalf to find out what was going on, he was told the medical exam was a must.

Last December, they received another letter asking for yet another medical examination, even though by this time Christian had learned through an Access-to-Information request that the initial request had been sent in error.

On February 10, Ekpunobi got an email from the High Commission in Accra telling her the visa was ready for pickup. The couple arrived in Accra the night of Feb. 27 and hurried to the immigration office the next morning, but the visa was not ready. The two emails and letter had been sent in error. They needed another medical test.

Christian is not holding his breath for a resolution.

“I don't believe things are over yet until we have the visa,” Christian said.