Judge rules against Iranian family hoping to enrol daughter in Coquitlam school

A federal judge has ruled against an Iranian mother and father who wanted their daughter attend a Coquitlam school for a year, but were rejected by immigration officials.

The parents paid $16,500 in tuition to the Coquitlam school district last January 2022 to enrol their seven-year-old daughter in Grade 2. The mother applied for temporary residency to accompany the girl in Canada.

The family said its purpose was to provide the girl an opportunity to study English and French through a French-immersion program, and chose Coquitlam because of the large Farsi-speaking Iranian community.

An immigration officer denied the applications, suspecting they would not leave Canada at the end of the year.

Combined with the cost of living, studying for one year in Coquitlam would have cost the family approximately $60,000. The immigration officer noted that bank statements showed the expense would consume almost half the total cash savings of the family.