Khan received her Canadian passport earlier this year, with her full name — first, middle and last — appearing as Safa Jamaluddin Khan printed in the surname field. Her first name on the official document is XXX. At every step I get stuck with things. I have to go to a notary. I have to go to a lawyer. You know? It is a pain. It’s my name. I know that is my name.- Safa Khan from London, Ont. “I did not realize they had taken my full name as my last name,” said Khan, a mother of two and a physiotherapy student at Western University. “It is very common in Canada when they do not understand the names, they put them all together in the surname.” Khan’s Indian passport showed three of her names also on a line, which is common in this country, as many Indian citizens have only one name. Khan’s husband and son also have the nickname XXX in their Canadian documents. He hopes that by speaking openly, Canadian officials will rectify an old problem that may affect people arriving in Canada from India.
India-Canada naming conventions differ
Shalini Konanur, a lawyer and executive director at the Ontario South Asian Law Clinic in Toronto, said she sees many people in the legal clinic dealing with the name issue. “The problem actually goes back to the original documents. There are many parts of India, including my own family, where we have no surnames in India – huge parts, most of southern India,” Konanur said. Shalini Konanur and her daughter, Saniya D’silva. D’silva was adopted from India and her mother initially says that the first name in her Canadian documentation was left blank. (Submitted by Shalini Konanur) However, because Canadian immigration officials are required to fill in the first and last name, the first name field is often left blank or it says XXX. And that can create problems. “There are so many parts of our system that when someone looks at your document, they will not even accept it because they do not see a first and last name,” Konanur said. “When a person has a name and their name cannot be split into two parts, the name will appear in the surname field in the passport booklet,” said Isabelle Dubois, spokeswoman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada ( IRCC). “This is in line with the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and facilitates future name searches.” According to the IRCC, there are 9,365 Canadian XXX passports listed in the field with the name. This does not include passports where the name is blank. In a follow-up email late Monday, another IRCC spokesman, Peter Liang, said holders of a passport with XXX as a small name could return their valid passport and replace it with a blank in their name field at no extra charge. . There is this kind of systemic discrimination that is embedded in the way we do it all.- Shalini Konanur, Lawyer, Executive Director, South Asia Law Clinic Because Khan’s first name is XXX, she often has to ask notaries and attorneys to sign affidavits to explain her real name, even when she became a student at Western University. “When I applied there, I had a lot of problems, especially with OSAP, and then I had to finish my license for my physiotherapy exam. I had to go and take an affidavit with a notary,” Khan explained to his Ontario Student Assistance Program. . “At every step, I get stuck with things. I have to go to a notary. I have to go to a lawyer. You know? It’s a pain. It’s my name. I know it’s my name.” Khan said she was told if she wanted her name to appear correctly on her Canadian passport, she would have to apply for a formal name change. Safa Khan’s son Omar Ahmed has the same problem with his Canadian passport as his mother. His first name is also XXX. (Submitted by Safa Khan) “And believe me, a legal name change is not easy,” Hahn said. “It’s a long process. It takes about two months.” It is also not free. In Ontario, it costs $ 122. “I’m a busy mom. I’m a student. And I’m doing my research,” Khan said. “It is not easy for me to leave time and keep running here and there. At the end of the day, I have no choice.”
The system is discriminatory
Konanur is also personally familiar with the enigma of the name. In 2013, Konanur adopted her daughter from India and when she arrived, she had a name, Saniya, which Canadian officials listed in the surname field. Name field left blank. It took months for Saniya to change her name, Konanur said, “and I’m a practicing lawyer.” Saniya’s Canadian name is now Saniya D’silva. Saniya is the name given to her by the orphanage in India and D’silva is her father’s surname. “There is this kind of systemic discrimination embedded in the way we do all this,” Konanur said, adding that Indian immigrants face unique challenges and obstacles due to the name dispute. “We have long argued that in the process of obtaining immigration, there should be an easier or simpler way to fix it.” Konanur suggested correcting the problem at the resident stage. Bureaucrats would have fewer paperwork, he said, and Indian immigrants would have fewer headaches.
