I am desperate

dairybell

New Member
We are a young South African family. My husband is an attorney with honors in political science. Unfortunately due to aggressive affirmative action in SA, he was barred from working! We went through a lot of poverty and violent crime. I took it upon myself to find him a sponsor or a job offer so I messages lawyers from my cel phone as I had no facilities in SA. It took me 3 years to find ONE sponsor. My husband was offered a J1 visa and the sponsor paid for us to travel to the US. the J1 visa only lasted one year and to prevent us from being deported back to SA somebody in Canada offered my husband a temp job. The job only lasted 3 months. We were told to file REFUGEE status but since then we have found out that there is a third safe country agreement and this could be held against us in court. Another issue is a previous South Africa case who won refugee status but the South African government got involved accusing Canada from being racist and the case was sent back to trial! We were advised by a Canadian attorney that it would not be wise to have our case heard here. Our only option is to go to the US border and file there but then we stand the risk of being detained! I dont know what to do anymore and my children are scared. They don't want to go back to SA where they went through a lot of trauma. Since being in North America they have developed into normal children instead of being withdrawn and scared. When we arrived in the US they rode bikes for the first time and played outside unsupervised for the first time. For them it was a privilege to go to school and my daughter achieved A's for all her subjects! I am really worried about our situation!
 
It took me 3 years to find ONE sponsor. My husband was offered a J1 visa and the sponsor paid for us to travel to the US. the J1 visa only lasted one year and to prevent us from being deported back to SA somebody in Canada offered my husband a temp job. The job only lasted 3 months.

I can't answer the refugee question in detail but what is holding him back from getting another temporary job in Canada or the USA--preferably one that lasts longer? Could he apply for regular permanent residence in Canada? Surely if he was able to find a job from South Africa, he should--with 15 months experience, his foot in the door, and being more local--be able to find something? Maybe not the ideal permanent role yet but at least something that keeps the family in North America?
 
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