Mandatory passport stamps for immigrants

[aou]

Ottawa is being accused of "harassing" immigrants who are now required to have their passports stamped on returning from abroad... "This is outrageous," Immigration lawyer Mendel Green said yesterday. "This will mean people will ... be harassed on their return home." WHAT?! What kind of harassment are they talking about

Comments

[zastrazzi]

While I largely agree with you, you're also assuming said stamp is a quick rubber stamp and not another opportunity to stop and quiz you for hours after a long flight.

[aou]

They do have the right to "stop and quiz you for hours" right now even if you are 100% Canadian citizen. They had this right year ago and years ago. Every time citizen or landed immigrant crossing the border this opportunity is there. The only difference is - if you are citizen - they can't deport you. They can detain you *in Canada* or just let you in. If you are permanent resident, not fulfilling your residency obligation - they can deport you right at the airport.

This stamp, in fact, changing nothing in immigrant's rights and responsibilities. Nothing. It's just few traces of ink, on one's passport page.

[friendlykraken]

>If you are permanent resident, not fulfilling your residency >obligation - they can deport you right at the airport.

As far as I know they cannot. They will let you in and then start procedures to remove your permanent residency and deport you.

[sun_tzu]

Brilliant. I see absolutely no way this is harassment, when it's merely a way of adding more of a paper trail to non-citizens. They're going through immigration controls anyhow, and so I can't see how it's that bad. Of course, it's not necessarily going to help unless there are stamps indicating when they left as well. In the case of someone who is a PR and is out of the country a lot, in fact, it will be a good way for them to prove they're entitled to citizenship when the time comes. Anything that makes sure that status in Canada is only retained by those who deserve it isn't harassment, it's enforcement of our laws. Mendel Green's just a hack like so many other lawyers of his ilk - Clayton Ruby etc.

[allhatnocattle]

God, how I envy the large stamp collection in some people's passports. I try to get a stamp every time I cross a border. I even have a stamp from Sturgis, far from any point of entry. It's legal with date and place of issue, just not from immigration. Proves I was there.

[dannnielle]

Who saw Trekkies?

Remember the man that had his Starfleet Federation passport stamped at the American border instead of an actual American passport?

[hendrikboom]

When I go abroad, it's routine to have my passport stamped at *every* border crossing. Never noticed Canada was different, but I suppose it may have been.

I've even heard of someone (from Russia) who got into serious trouble returning home to Russia because one of the border crossings between two Scandinavian countries wasn't stamped. There had simply been no one at the border crossing to stamp it -- or do anything else, or that matter. The Russians couldn't conceive of security that was so lax.