Writing on behalf of my partner, who is alone and anxiously waiting out the weekend in our new home. Also writing for myself, as I feel powerless to help. I need your input on what to do and what to prepare for. The tldr is at the bottom.
My partner is an amazing human, and an experienced nurse. Trauma care, children, epidemeology specialist and ebola / infectious disease (SARS, Coronavirus) expert. She was recruited by a health authority in Canada as someone who can help plug the nursing and expertise shortage. Signed a job offer and they registered her and sent her the immigration employment number (EIN or IEN?), the NOC and other immigration details, as an RN. She signed the job offer, highered an immigration attorney so we could make it smooth for our family. The health authority offered to pay for moving and we signed that, too. She moved first. I’m closing out our home and solo parenting in Europe as the school year comes to a spring break. We double checked all with our private immigration lawyer, sent our packet in. My partner got her work permit as an RN for three years issued at the port of entry. She got her SIN, signed our lease, and started onboarding and pre-employment paperwork at her new job.
One HR person emailed her and said her work permit is no good as it doesnt match the internal job title and she wont let her work at the health agency. The same HR department that filled out the forms with immigration, sent the paperwork to us for her work permit, and resulted in her getting a permit to work for them and into the fucking country. We have never talked to this person, not once. Came out of the blue.
She tried emailing this person, ghosted. Calling. Nope. Now, no one will return her calls, our immigration lawyer lost her mind at this, and my partner is alone, anxious, in our empty new house in a new country. We…we can’t afford an international relocation and a new home without, you know, the job they signed a contract to pay her for. I’ve already started emigration here, notified our landlord, pulling my son out of his school and moving him across an ocean and a continent. I’m an anxious mess…and I’ve seem some shit…but this is worse because I’m powerless and thousands of KM away. But worse, my partner in this world is alone, scared, and hurt.
What do you recommend I do? Any know-how with Canadian employment law? Sit, wait, calm down? Either way, thank you. I needed to get this out.
TL;DR
Wife got a job, signed offer and contract, we started a move across the world with valid work permit and welcome to Canada from border agent. Hard stop. One HR rep at her new job said the work permit they sponsored, advised her to get, and she got, is not good. They won’t return her call or emails. Now its the weekend. So we wait anxiously for Monday to come and hope to talk to anyone.
That is a colossal f-up from the part of the health authority hiring and / or the HR personnel, from the sounds of it… Uprooting your family’s life internationally and experiencing this situation is just horrible. I’m sorry your partner and you are going through this =(
I’m sure the both of you have already researched as many options available for support but I’ll try to share some ideas as well.
Explore if there are ombudspersons one can connect with. They may be able to offer guidance and support, but issues related to immigration may complicate it. There may be ombudspersons for specific hospitals, across the health authority, generally for healthcare workers, and potentially for immigration-related stuff.
See if there are immigrant support groups around the area your partner is in. They may have folks that have experienced similar situations before and they could provide guidance for how they’ve handled it / what happened. As well, it’s another outlet to commiserate and hopefully be less alone during this moment.
If finances and food-scarcity is an issue, there should generally be food banks around if they are not too far.
Unfortunately with Canada, and as a result each province, being so vast, the availability and accessibility to all of these services will vary depending on where one’s in.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for y’all that the health authority can just sort out the job title BS internally. Administrative nonsense affecting real people’s lives is just cruel.
The manner of communication and lack of help or empathy was cruel. Thank you for the validation on that. Upon review, my partner revealed she received no help, guidance, or support from them too. Her recruiter was helping unstick things instead as needed. I fear we are dealing with a terrible HR department and it worries me as this is a new job doing very important work around novel virii. Let alone the aforementioned insanity. Being left to our own devices and stonewalled though is the biggest concern.
We are hopeful for movement today and my partner is receiving our house hold goods today too. So a nice distraction. We will review your suggestions and inform ourselves. We are meeting with our immigration attorney today, too (me virtually) to investigate plan B and be ready for new avenues. I really hope we can resolve this. My partner deserves some peace.
Thank you for your detailed and helpful response.