Because of all this, I lost everything, including the house. I was down to renting a house. Money-wise, I was borrowing money to buy groceries for the kids. I couldn't see how this could keep going. My wife was depressed about it, and started taking antidepressants. There was no news of getting anything back.
So I went from job to job, trying to support the family, trying to keep everything I had. My father owned a construction company, and he offered me a job. He had an opening, so I started working for him. A year later, I'm still here, trying to pay off what I borrowed four years ago.
What I have to say is that this should never have happened. I was in Canada, and for something like a marriage certificate.... I mean, they had a marriage in church, not a civil marriage. That was what was keeping me from my citizenship. I couldn't see that.
The law said that because I was born after February 1977, I had to retain my citizenship before I was 28. But the thing is that if I had been born three years earlier, I would have never had a problem. Everything would have been fine. If I had never sent my application in, would you have found the problem back then?
Another thing is that it's been four years they worked with it. But then, all of a sudden, when we started publishing this in the paper, I had it--in a matter of four weeks. I received it on February 28, 2007. I'm grateful for it, but everything that has happened has cost me dearly. Four weeks ago, Mr. Bill Janzen gave you the rest of the story in his submission.
I would just be grateful if nobody else had to go through what I did.
Thank you.