Friday, July 27, 2007

WTF: Canadian immigration edition


CBC News has obtained a copy of a letter sent from the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi to Singh's family stating that "the names Kaur and Singh do not qualify for the purpose of immigration to Canada."

From this story.

I found the link to this story in a very interesting discussion at Crooked Timber on Japan's strict rules about people's names. Specifically, husband and wife cannot keep their separate surnames; this rule forces Japanese couples to invent bizarre ways of getting around it -- including "registering their divorce".

2 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    Dear Abi,

    Language Log discussed the issue too from which article I also learnt this gem of an information:
    ਸਿਮਰਨ Simran "meditation on God's name" . The piece goes on to tell why the rule does not make sense whatsoever.

  2. Rahul Siddharthan said...

    This was in the Indian press a couple of days ago. Good to see it made it to the Canadian press too.