Some Nova Scotia business owners say Canada's move to rein in immigration and reduce pathways to permanent residency is creating challenges for their companies and they're calling for a policy overhaul.
Dave Culligan, the owner of Threesixfive Media, told CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia that one of his best employees, video content specialist Zen Sun, was forced to leave Canada and return to China.
Culligan said Sun had lived in Canada for seven years and worked for him for three.
"It's hard these days to run a small company, so it was devastating," Culligan said.
Culligan said Sun had studied at NSCAD and stood out in a competitive application process.
"He just brought a great attitude, and pre-existing and always-developing skill sets to our team. And this is someone that never complained, always gave their best, always took care of their teammates and someone that frankly, I grew to love."
Before he left, Sun and Culligan worked on a video to draw attention to the immigration issue. The video features local business owners and workers from outside Canada who are trying to stay.
'A lot of confusion in the system'
In the video, Sun said he believed that if he and other immigrants "contributed, stayed patient and followed the rules, there would be a future for us here."
Culligan said he doesn't understand the federal government's reasoning for denying Sun and others like him a pathway to permanent citizenship.
"It feels like there's a lack of communication, a lack of clarity and just a lot of confusion in the system," he said.
"... There's hundreds of stories of folks who are being told one thing and then hearing another and policies change, so these people are being left in limbo."
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Mike Mills, president and CEO at Cabco Communications Group, also participated in the video.
He said he went through a similar situation with two employees who had been in Canada for about five years, both waiting on their permanent residency, but their work permits were expiring.
"The thought was always [if] you're on a work permit waiting on your [permanent residency] application status, it's going to get renewed. You'll be able to continue working" Mills told Information Morning.
But that didn't happen. In April, he said both employees were "effectively told they have 90 days to leave the country."
'It's a business issue, it's a humanity issue'
Mills posted about the experience on LinkedIn and Culligan reached out about making the video.
"It's a business issue, it's a humanity issue. I feel really badly about how these immigrants are being treated. It seems like the ground has shifted. Nobody knows exactly what the rules are," Mills said.
"It's almost like they signed up for a race. They knew it was going to be challenging, but there was a finish line and now there's no finish line and there's a chance that they get pulled off the course mid-race and sent home."
Mills said this is hurting businesses too.
"We invest in these employees. There's training involved. It takes a while for employees to ramp up and become kind of a core part of your business and when they lose their work permits, you're basically starting over," Mills said.
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While Ottawa is expanding its Express Entry immigration program for some skilled workers, Mills said the focus needs to be on people who are currently working.
"These are people who've been in the country for a number of years. They've been following the process. They should receive some clarity about where they stand," he said.
CBC News requested an interview with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Indefinite waiting periods
Sarah McInnes, an immigration lawyer for McInnes Cooper, told Information Morning that Mills's comments echo what she hears from clients and employers in recent years.
McInnes said some of her clients are waiting "indefinitely" to hear about their permanent residency.
Her client Luca Ferrante's permanent residency journey has been ongoing for almost seven years.
Ferrante owns Sapori Italian Street Food, a restaurant on the Halifax waterfront where he employs four people permanently and 15 people part-time for the summer. He is on his fourth work permit since arriving in Canada and it's set to expire in October.
"We're running a business so we love what we do, but ... stress about the work permit insecurity sometimes makes things a little bit more complicated," Ferrante, who is originally from Italy, told Information Morning.
At one point, his application for a work permit was rejected so he had to leave Canada to speed up the timeline so he could go back to work faster.
Ferrante said it wasn't clear why his work permit was rejected. McInnes said rejections can be brief and generic.
Small errors can derail application
"The smallest administrative error on an application can lead to a refusal. And that's what happened," McInnes said.
When a work permit is refused, McInnes said you have to stop working immediately. She said that can be challenging for Canadian businesses who rely on these employees.
McInnes says the federal government should flag errors to applicants so they can be fixed and resubmitted, and that people should be allowed to continue working while the change is made.
She said it's unlikely Ferrante will get his permanent residency status by October, so they'll be going for a work permit again.
While work permits are processed, she said Luca will be in "maintained status" for a four-to-five-month period, which means he'll be able to work, but won't be able to leave the country.
"They cannot leave or they risk their status and this goes on for months at a time. So if there's any family emergency at home or any reason that they have to leave, they cannot," McInnes said.
'I have my life here'
Despite the struggle, Ferrante said he would like to stay in Canada.
"I would love to stay here. Since we came, we fell in love with the culture, we love the city of Halifax, the people are great. So we really hope we'll find a way to stay," he said.
He said if he can't stay, he'll be forced to sell the business and go back to Italy.
"That would be sad because my co-workers are my friends and I have a good number of regular customers who come all the time ... I have my life here."
