Kaitlin Weatherall is a Canadian Citizen born and raised in Ontario, Canada. She was living in the Dominican Republic for the past 2.5 years, volunteering for a non-profit. She was managing a medical clinic for the poor in the Sosua area of the Dominican. She is now 8 months pregnant and had to return back to Canada back in July due to COVID and the possibility of boarders being closed, which would stop her form returning to Canada to have her baby. Medical care in the Dominican Republic is not of the same standard as Canada, and she also did not have insurance that covered anything to do with pregnancy. 

Shortly after Kaitlin moved to the Dominican back in 2018, she met her now husband. They got married in 2019 and they have been together everyday since meeting. After they married, he quit his job and joined her in working in the medical center that she was managing. 

They began their Sponsorship Application in September of 2019 for her husband to come to Canada. They had attempted Visitor Visa's for him to visit Canada, but were denied. It has now been over 13 months they have been waiting for their application and now they have been separated. Their baby is due next month and her husband is going to miss the birth of their first child if IRCC does not finish their application ASAP. 

They have had nothing but silence since March, the beginning of the pandemic. 7 out of the 13 months of their applications current processing time - their application has not even been touched. All they have been told since May, is that their application is "in the queue to be reviewed by an Officer", which they believe means to make a decision, but IRCC has not clarified this. 

Many families have been separated due to the broken system of Immigration Canada and slow processing time, worse now with the COVID-19 pandemic. But because this couple chose to put the health and well being of Kaitlin and the baby first, and have them return to Canada, this couple has been separated in one of the most important times a family will go through in life. Her husband does not want to miss the birth of his first child. This couple has also never been apart their whole relationship and they have now been separated for almost 3 months. 

Canada continues to state that the reunification of families is important to them, but this is not shown by the actions and long processing times that families are forced to wait before being together again. What we are asking is for immediate assistance to allow for Kaitlin's husband, Isai, to come to Canada in time for their baby which is coming in 4-7 weeks.