When visa’s rejected, where to go?
Nicholas Keung writes for the Toronto Star:
A grieving son in China rejected for a visitor’s visa to Canada for his mother’s funeral. Guests from the Philippines turned away at the border for a Toronto wedding. A group of Anglican priests from Myanmar refused entry for a missionary event in Vancouver.
Currently, these rejected visitors to Canada – 200,000 yearly – could do little else than pay another $75 for a new visa application, which can involve costly travels to a Canadian visa post in another city or country.
One has to sympathize with those who legitimately wanted to visit Canada but were turned back, however, we shouldn’t be too quick to blame the immigration department. The only reason visiting has gotten tougher is because far too many of these “visitors” show up and instantly forget about visiting their relatives, and instead decide to claim refugee status. Of course, many thousands more simply disappear into the ‘community”