Iranian Students in Canada Affected by Iranian Embassy Closure

The Foreign Iranian students studying in Canadian Universities were one of the most affected Iranian immigrants in the country after the local government decided to cut off its links with Iran by announcing to close the Iranian embassy in Canada this Friday September 7^th, 2012.

The students and the Iranian academic professionals claim that this initiative by the government will not only affect the lives of Iranian students, and families, living in Canada in the present but might have a more adverse affect in the long run. The Iranian business community will also have to suffer due to the decision, which initiated protests throughout Iran.

The immigrant students from Iran who have been studying in Canadian Universities for the past few years claim that they had no knowledge of even the possibility of such an occurrence.  The students emphasized the importance of the Iranian embassy in their lives as immigrants in Canada saying that they depended a lot on the embassy due to numerous necessities that could only be satisfied through formal links to their home country.

The Iranian students also claim that even the embassy officials had not officially intimated them, or anyone for that matter, of any such closure, which they said should have been made to avoid sudden panic in local Iranian immigrant communities.

Many students after arriving at the embassy gates to renew their passports were faced with disappointment when they saw a small notice in Farsi on the embassy building stating:

“According to the government of Canada, the Embassy is closed and there are no consular services for Iranians until further notice.”

The students claimed that the closure will make all there immigration processes all the more difficult. Iranian students believe that the conflicts between the two countries are affecting the lives of those who have nothing to do with such politics.

Such serious and somewhat harsh measures by the Canadian government against Iran are not unprecedented as the government had imposed many financial sanctions on Iran previously. But people are calling the current initiative of the Canadian immigration authorities to be more targeted towards the citizens of Iran than the Iranian government.

Similar steps by the United States immigration authorities had caused the Iranian government to conduct its embassy business through the Pakistan Embassy in the United States. Time will tell if the same result will be seen in Canada.

Tags: Canadian Immigration, Foreign Iranian students, Iran, Iranian community in Canada, Iranian embassy in Canada, US Immigration