Desperate dad prevails on Immigration Canada

St. Lazare resident Vittorio Insogna, 37, who suffers from a mild intellectual handicap, his wife Arlene and their child may soon be allowed back into Canada after a federal Immigration court of appeal yesterday reversed the decision by an immigration officer in the Philippines to disallow Arlene a visa because of allegations theirs was a sham marriage.

"I'm very excited, I can't wait to get my brother back," Insogna's brother Nick told The Chronicle over the telephone. Their father Antonio Insogna had been attempting to get an appeal on the decision made by Immigration Canada since last July.

It was an arduous process. The court heard five witnesses yesterday as it tried to determine both whether Vittorio Insogna, despite his intellectual handicap, was fit enough to return to Canada and work, and if his wife Arlene truly loved him and married him not just in order to gain access to an immigration visa.

Despite some initial technical difficulties, the court managed to call the couple in the Philippines in order to hear their testimony. His disembodied voice hanging in the air of the court room, Vittorio Insogna was first to relate the story of how he had come to know Arlene.

"I met Arlene through (my grandmother's caregiver) Jasmine," Insogna said. In 2005, when Vittorio's father, Antonio, was looking for a caregiver for his mother and grandmother, he asked a tenant of the family, Jasmine, for advice. The latter then contacted an acquaintance in Hong Kong, who in turn suggested Arlene, a Filipina woman who was then staying in Hong Kong.

"I met Arlene by phone and computer," explained Vittorio. "I saw her on Internet for a very long time," he added.

The Insogna family lawyers, Jacques Guvlekjian and Lina Simeone from the law firm Marsillo, Simeone and Associates, maintained Vittorio's father spoke separately to Arlene at first, told her about her son's condition, as well as the fact Vittorio had just been through a bad break-up. "He just wanted Vittorio to have a 'computer pal, ' " Guvlekjian explained to The Chronicle.

Asked how the marriage came about, Vittorio said he was the one who had asked for her hand during a trip to the Philippines in January 2007. "I wanted her to become my wife, to be with her," he said to the court.

It emerged from his testimony that Vittorio does not currently work, but stays at home with his wife and child and helps take care of the family. "I'm very happy," he said. "I take care of my child. I take care of my wife," he explained.

"When I'm tired she takes over. When she's tired, I take over," he added.

During Arlene's testimony, questioning by the Immigration Ministry's lawyer revealed her attempt to come to Canada via sponsorship this year was preceded by another failed one in February 2007. "I was refused," she confirmed.

Guvlekjian later explained to The Chronicle that Arlene's original entry as a live-in caregiver was refused due to a technicality. "When they filled up the live-in caregiver application it was for both (the mother and the grandmother)," Guvlekjian said. However, Antonio Insogna's grandmother passed away, and so the Canadian government deemed Arlene simply would not be able to make enough of an income based on what Insogna's mother would pay her alone,based on the mother's tax return sheet.

When re-applying last summer with sponsorship out of Canada, Arlene forgot to mention she was refused the first time as a caregiver. In court yesterday, she said she did not realize a question on her visa application form asking her if she had been refused in the past was general in tone and applied to all kinds of refusals, not just those based on any attempts to enter Canada via sponsorship. "The first time I read this letter," she said, "I thought that all these questions were the same thing."

Arlene Insogna also recalled her unhappy encounter with the immigration officer who accused her of having married Vittorio only to be able to come to Canada. "I was so emotional. I cried that time, when she said that," Arlene recalled.

"That woman was judging my feeling. She was very judgemental."

"She told me that you can use your husband's mental difficulty to annul your marriage," Insogna recalled. She added she would have liked to explain to the immigration officer that she really loved Vittorio, but did not bother after hearing that. "What's the sense of explaining?" She asked the court.

"He is one in a million," she said about her husband. "He is very thoughtful," she added, also praising his sense of humour.

According to Guvlekjian, the court was satisfied yesterday that the marriage is not a sham. Therefore, Arlene will be able to re-apply for her visa.

However, the court did not hand down a written verdict yet. "This could take until Christmas," Guvlekjian explained.

When they arrive to Canada, the Insognas plan on living in a section of the St. Lazare home owned by Antonio Insogna.

The latter was unavailable for comment today, as he was on a flight to the Philippines, there to be reunited with his son, daughter-in-law and grandchild.