After building a life in Canada for more than a decade, a family is now forced to leave the country by next week, leaving them shocked with what they describe as a harsh decision from Canada’s immigration department.
For 15-year-old Stella Figg, she could have played her last soccer game on Canadian soil on Sunday.
“It’s really challenging to know that I might have to restart at zero,” she told CTV News.
Stella was born in the United States but moved to Canada when she was a baby. Her parents moved here for work 15 years ago with Stella and their son.
Since moving to Canada, the parents have welcomed four more children and, for them, Canada is all they know.
“I mean, I’ve lived my whole life there so it’s, like, home,” Figg said.
But after coming back from a trip to the U.S. last Monday, Alice Figg says they were stopped by the Canada Border Services Agency.
“We’re being given two weeks to pack up our house, to sell our house, to liquidate our assets, and to leave Canada, possibly permanently, without any expectation of being able to return into the country,” Alice said.
It turns out their work visa was expired. Federal documents show that the parents, along with their two American-born children, must leave the country by Sept. 8.
“That’s the shock. That’s where the emotion comes out as just being dismissed after all that we’ve done to work, to be here legitimately,” Alice said.
The family tried a few times to apply for permanent residency but to no avail.
Brent Figg says in the past, after their work visa would expire, they were usually given a 90-day grace period to reapply, but that wasn’t the case this time around.
“We were well within that window,” Brent said.
Immigration lawyer Patrice Brunet, who does not represent the family, says there is a chance they could stay in Canada.
“What I would explore with them is in an application under humanitarian grounds, which, you know, that’s a system we have in Canada that will allow an immigration officer to consider the file as a whole: community integration, past work history, of course the kids that are here,” Brunet explained.
Though the Figgs moved around before, since 2017, Quebec has been their home. The kids are enrolled in French schools, made friends, and planted roots in the Eastern Townships area. But now, all of that is in jeopardy.
“The Canadian kids did go back to school this week just to say goodbye to their friends, just to have some last contact,” Alice said.
CTV News reached out to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on Sunday but did not receive a response before publication time.
