Immigration delays costing pregnant Edmonton woman thousands for health care
CBC
Liron Zamir is expecting a baby girl at the end of the month but she's also expecting a big bill for her first-born's delivery.
Zamir, 31, who was born and raised in Israel, came to Edmonton with her partner to work in 2016. She said they fell in love with Canada and wanted to stay. Zamir applied for permanent residency in January 2021, about a month after receiving a provincial nomination letter.
Zamir said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has yet to make a decision on her permanent residency application, more than two and a half years after she submitted it.
Having lost provincial health-care coverage in the meantime, she's responsible for paying for all her medical costs.
She estimates she has spent about $7,000 on pregnancy-related appointments and tests and a nurse advised her that the hospital bill for her delivery could be $10,000.
"This is more expensive than a car, honestly, but at this point, there is nothing we can do about it," she said.
When Zamir applied for permanent residency, she was working as a sales manager for an Edmonton home security and automation company.
She submitted her application after obtaining a letter from the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program, now called the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program, confirming she had been nominated.
Alberta nominates skilled workers for permanent residence in the province, but the federal government makes final decisions on the applications.
Business slowed during the pandemic, and in the fall of 2021, Zamir was laid off by her employer, she said.
Her latest work permit, which was tied to that employer, had been issued on Feb. 11, 2021. It was due to expire on July 8, 2022.
Zamir applied for a bridging open work permit on Dec. 8, 2021, so she could keep working while waiting for a decision on her permanent residence application.
She said she had several job offers at the time and had she received another work permit, she could have kept working and kept her provincial health-care coverage.
Zamir has been waiting for more than two years for decisions on the work permit application and the application for permanent residence.
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