Settled in Quebec for several years, Firas Bouzgarrou saw the end of a long administrative ordeal.
From expulsion to final integration, there are only a few steps. A few minutes even, hardly, for Firas Bouzgarrou, between these two realities so diametrically opposed.
It was played in a few seconds, corrects the person concerned, smiling now, who will never forget the tension and stress experienced last fall.
The latter has just obtained, after a long political and legal fight, a permanent residence granted by the federal government for humanitarian reasons.
“We are so happy. It’s a real relief, I can finally sleep peacefully.” Firas Bouzgarrou
In 2014, when he arrived in Quebec, Firas Bouzgarrou was far from imagining such a journey. That year, this finance graduate from Tunisia, now 40, landed his permanent residency. Precious sesame to live and stay in Canada. But with some obligations.
As Radio-Canada told it a few months ago, Firas Bouzgarrou quickly had to return to Tunisia, to his ailing wife and his sick granddaughter, whom he wanted to sponsor to bring them to Montreal.
The father of the family then remained at their bedside, until 2018, before taking the plane back to his new country. Too late, then claimed the Canadian authorities. In their eyes, Firas Bouzgarrou had spent too much time abroad and the immigration authorities issued a removal order.
Despite the challenges, nothing has been done. A notice of expulsion was sent to him and he presented himself as agreed, on October 30, at the Montreal airport. Before an unlikely turnaround.
Faced with a common front of provincial and federal elected officials, Ottawa backed down at the last moment. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser granted him a temporary resident permit. But no long-term decision was taken.
A double victory behind the scenes
It is behind the scenes, finally, that Firas Bouzgarrou, who combines the jobs in Quebec, has just obtained, in quick succession, two new victories. Final this time.
At the end of July, a Federal Court judge first forced Immigration Canada to review its file, deploring negligence on the part of the agent in the context of the analysis of professional integration [by Firas Bouzgarrou ] in Canada.
In the end, Immigration Canada will not have to take up this request since, at the same time, the same ministry has just granted him, on August 4, a new permanent residence for humanitarian reasons.
According to the reasons mentioned in the document of which Radio-Canada obtained a copy, Firas Bouzgarrou, who is perfectly French-speaking, was able to integrate significantly into Quebec and forged important social and community ties in Canada. He has demonstrated stable employment and income, enabling him to support himself and support his wife and daughter in Tunisia.
Firas has superb social integration. That’s what we’ve always pleaded for. And without the hype and the support of politicians, we do not know what would have happened, underlines his lawyer, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, who has been working on this file, with three of his colleagues, for several months.
“It says a lot about the number of files that have not benefited from the same visibility and which have been unreasonably refused. Firas is no exception.” Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, an immigration lawyer
Firas Bouzgarrou now has only one thing in mind. I can’t wait to see my wife and my daughter again, he claims, when he could not leave Canada during this interminable process. I’ve been waiting for four years. It was hard, very hard. We all suffered a lot and I had almost lost all hope. Now the worst is over.
