He thought he followed all the rules. Then border guards arrested him on the street
CBC
Just weeks ago, Dillon Nolan was envisioning a new chapter of his life in Canada.
He married his partner, Dylan Fox, on Valentine’s Day and was, by all accounts, excelling at his job as a social worker specializing in youth mental health at B.C. Children’s Hospital.
A couple of weeks later, he was arrested and handcuffed outside a music venue in Vancouver's Gastown where he was about to perform, detained in an immigration holding centre and ordered to leave the country.
"I was so upset. I was so shocked," Nolan said. "I didn't really know what happened or why."
His supervisors at B.C. Children’s Hospital say Nolan’s sudden absence created an unexpected gap in care at a critical time, as they had wanted Nolan to be involved in supporting youth in Tumbler Ridge in the wake of February’s mass shooting.
It all comes down to two key pieces of correspondence from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) that Nolan says he never received.
Nolan, 30, an Irish national, has been living in Vancouver and working at B.C. Children’s since 2022.
He applied for his most recent work permit in January 2024, which authorized Nolan to do social work in Canada for two years.
However, a letter dated Dec. 30, 2024, from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada obtained by CBC News stated the department was re-examining Nolan’s work permit due to concerns he was working in a field other than social work, which Nolan says was not the case.
The letter gave Nolan 30 days to provide the department with various identity documents and record checks.
But Nolan says he never received that letter.
An IRCC record of correspondence about Nolan’s application, also obtained by CBC News, indicates the Dec. 30 letter was sent by mail. Under "status" it says "cancelled."
A month later, having not heard back from Nolan, IRCC sent another letter informing him he’d been found inadmissible to Canada for five years for misrepresenting himself to the department.
That letter was mailed to an address in Dublin. Nolan never received it.
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