Saint John woman wins battle with Immigration over rejected work permit

RCI

International students across Canada denied post-graduation permits over application confusion.

Everything was going according to plan for Julia Celestino in her move from Brazil to Saint John.

Celestino came to the city in 2023 for the educational support program at the New Brunswick Community College and hoped to work with children in the local school system.

She graduated last spring and found steady work as a casual, mainly paired with a child with learning support needs at an area school because they worked well together.

In late February, she found out her post-graduation work permit was rejected because she hadn’t submitted proof of language proficiency in English as part of her application.

I was devastated, she said. “I didn’t know what to do or what to think. I was just very worried about my work. They will, of course, need someone else to fill in for me. How is it going to be in the future if I get my visa again?

I was really worried about losing my job.

Nearly 1,000 denied permit

Canada-wide, people like Celestino who came into the country as international students have received similar rejection notices from the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

Saint John woman initially refused work permit, can now stay in Canada

International students nationwide face uncertainty after post-graduation permits were denied because of an administrative glitch in the application process.

The federal department has required proof of language proficiency since 2024, but students say the requirement to submit proof they passed a certified test wasn’t made explicit on the application form, and there was no way to attach a certificate.

Between November 2024 and the end of last year, 945 people were denied permits because of the language issue, the department said.

In Celestino’s case, she applied for the permit last May after graduation and had followed all of the steps outlined on the Immigration Department’s website.

She had passed a language test and had a certificate to prove it, but she didn’t know she needed to attach it to the application.

She had to stop working right away and was living in Canada without a work permit.

I wasn’t expecting it, she said. “In my mind, I did everything right.

I was thinking, do I need to leave Canada … when, what can I do? I don’t know. I was so lost. It was very hard. I planned for two or three years to come here. I saved money and everything, and I left my life there in Brazil, right? So I was like, what’s the next [step] now?

Since moving to New Brunswick more than two years ago, Celestino had met and become engaged to Henry Gushurst, who’d immigrated to Canada himself from the U.S. more than a decade ago and was now a citizen.

They were scheduled to be married in July in a ceremony that would include family members from Brazil and the U.S.

Now they had only 90 days to sort things out before she would have to leave the country, so they got married in March instead. This would allow Celestino to apply for permanent residency status under the spousal sponsorship program.

Our plan was, let’s get married just to be safe, Celestino said.

At the same time, their lawyer started the process for a judicial review of the rejected work permit application, which must be initiated within 15 days of receiving notice the application was rejected.

Appeal is successful

After a month and a half living in a state of uncertainty, they found out last week that her appeal was successful and a work permit was issued.

It was such a relief because I was like, OK, now I can go back to working … and keep going with our plans, the wedding and everything, she said. We don’t have to worry anymore.

The federal government has acknowledged issues with the application process and made attempts to address them.

In November of last year, the Immigration Department introduced changes to its website making it clear the language proficiency test results had to be uploaded and provided instructions on how to do so.

But this was six months after Celestino applied, and no one reached out to say her application was incomplete.

In an email response to questions from CBC News, a spokesperson with Immigration said staff reviewing applications have the discretion to reach out and request missing documents, but they can also reject incomplete applications.

Alannah Glintz, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, said it was early February when they noticed the increase in cases of people being turned down for work permits.

Glintz said the most common avenues of recourse are to file a reconsideration request with the Immigration Department or proceed with a judicial review with the Federal Court of Canada.

We are seeing clients successful with their reconsideration requests, Glintz said. If the reconsideration request is clear, concise [and] provides the documentation that is needed to update the file, then typically it is something that they are able to reopen and continue processing.

Glintz said her firm has seen 20 to 30 cases like this, but she’s optimistic that people with the right paperwork will see their cases resolved and the government will address the issues that led to so many people submitting incomplete applications.

Celestino and Gushurst are among the lucky ones who got things straightened out.

Even though they’re now officially married, they will have a wedding celebration with family in early July, as originally planned.

Celestino is also excited to return to work after the unplanned two-month interruption, though she did keep busy in the meantime by volunteering at an area food bank.

As it turns out, the school wanted her back.

I’m so happy and really excited to see everybody, all my co-workers and the students, she said.

Though things worked out for her in the end, Celestino and Gushurst are worried about the people they know who are still out of work with no permit.

They said the office of Wayne Long, the local member of Parliament, told them they’d heard from about 75 people in the same situation.

I know people that had to go back to their country, and I also know people that are still here without working and still waiting for an answer, Celestino said.

I really hope that things work out for everybody.

Mark Leger (new window) · CBC News