Expelled from Canada in 2020 for continuing to work part-time following graduation, a Cameroonian was finally able to return to Quebec on Saturday.
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Rose Eva, a young Cameroonian programmer, was expected at 3 p.m. at Pierre-Elliot Trudeau airport by her family and elected officials from the Bloc Québécois.
As a reminder, the young woman arrived in Quebec in 2017 to do a technique in computer programming at the Teccart Institute in Montreal.
She was a full-time student and worked part-time in a clothing store in Mirabel, as the law allowed her to.
She managed to get ahead to finish her program before other students and graduated in September 2019 three months early.
In December of the same year, Rose Eva went to customs in Lacolle to apply for permanent resident status.
After a series of questions, she was asked when she finished her studies and if she had worked followingwards. The Cameroonian answered honestly.
According to Immigration Canada officials, Rose Eva was in the wrong. She should have stopped working the same day she graduated, then had her student visa changed so that she might be employed without going to school.
The 23-year-old was expelled from the country in January 2020 and was only able to return this Saturday.
Present when he arrived at the airport, elected officials from the Bloc Québécois took the opportunity to denounce the shortcomings of the federal immigration system.
“Immigration Canada and the federal government must do better, and improve their policies and communications to prevent this type of situation from happening once more,” argued MPs Rhéal Éloi Fortin and Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe.
“In believing that she might legally continue her work since her study session was officially not over, Rose Eva made an honest mistake that cost her dearly. We believe that the regulation deserves clarification and, above all, improvement, particularly in the current context where many employers are fighting once morest the labor shortage,” said Alexis Brunelle Duceppe, who suggests abolishing this administrative formality.
Since last fall, Immigration Canada has allowed certain students to respect the weekly limit of 20 hours of off-campus work.
Some students are even allowed to work full-time during scheduled breaks, regardless of their course load.
“The case of Rose Eva illustrates well the slowness and the lack of discernment of the federal authorities, condemned the deputies of the Bloc Québécois. We collectively deprived ourselves of a precious computer resource, freshly graduated from a Quebec institution and perfectly integrated into our society, for three years, even though a labor shortage hit and still hits hard. many sectors of our economy.
