B.C. parents stranded in Nepal with adopted daughter coming home
B.C. parents stranded in Nepal with adopted daughter coming home
By Kelly Sinoski , Vancouver SunNovember 20, 2009 9:57 PM
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Dr. Salima Shariff, a Surrey cardiologist, feeds the baby that she and her husband, Aziz Nurmohamed, went to Nepal to adopt.
Photograph by: handout, .
VANCOUVER — A British Columbia cardiologist will finally be able to bring her adopted daughter home after nine weeks of being tied up in bureaucratic red tape in Nepal.
Dr. Salima Shariff said a Canadian immigration official in New Delhi, India, has told her immigration officials would be hand-delivering the girl's visa, allowing the family to return to Canada.
"The immigration officer in New Delhi just called us," Shariff said in an e-mail to The Vancouver Sun Friday. "We are coming home!"
Shariff and her husband, Aziz Nurmohamed, left Canada on Sept. 17 after receiving word from a Victoria-based adoption agency that was guiding them through the process that the paperwork was all but complete and they should prepare to claim their new toddler.
But while they took legal custody of the child on Oct. 5, they were forced to wait a few more weeks because Citizenship and Immigration Canada had not yet recognized the Nepali adoption process.
Dr. Sally Barrio, Shariff's colleague at Surrey Memorial Hospital, said Shariff called her Thursday night to tell her the visa was to be delivered next Tuesday.
"We were both in tears on the phone. She was very relieved and happy," Barrio said, adding she expects Shariff, Nurmohamed and the little girl, who is to be named Sophia, will come home as soon as they can.
"The whole hospital is so relieved for her. I think there will be a contingent at the airport (when she arrives) . . . there will be a warm greeting there."
Alykhan Velshi, spokesman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's office, said the government should not be criticized for doing due diligence on what was considered a complex case.
He noted this was the first adoption Canadian officials have handled under the new Nepalese system and without an immigration office in Nepal, there were bound to be delays.
As part of the investigation, he said, officials had to look into where the children came from, assess police reports and ensure the children aren't the victims of trafficking.
Meanwhile, a Bowen Island mom remains stranded in Ghana with her five-year-old son and adopted one-year-old twin boys as she waits for approval to bring the twins back home.
Andrea Bastin and her husband Michael Segal have been fostering the two boys long-distance since February as part of an adoption process.
Bastin and her five-year-old son headed over to Accra in August, expecting she would face a fostering period for up to three months. When the judge gave the couple interim two-year custody of the boys, they were surprised.
But that surprise was superseded by other news: Unbeknownst to them they couldn't take the boys back to Canada by giving them Canadian citizenship. Instead, they would have to file immigration papers for the toddlers.
That added at least another month to the process while they filed the papers. Now they have to wait for approval, which on average could take 98 days, or up to two years.
Bastin said it's been "an enormous emotional and financial burden" because she has had to live in a hotel while her husband remains in Canada.
Segal said he's hoping to take some time off around Christmas to spend the holidays in Ghana with his family.
"It's just started to wear on us," he said. "It was just a little surprising the length of time it takes for Canadian citizens to come home to Canada with new babies . . . with everything in place.
"We figured once the adoption process was done she could come home. Now we're sitting in this big bundle of red tape by the Canadian government and nobody gives us any answers. We can understand it to an extent but it doesn't make it any less frustrating."
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