Chinese man sues over getting no reason for refusing residency

A CHINESE man and his family sued the State for the failure of the Immigration Division to give reasons for refusing them residential status since 2014. On Thursday, before the case came up before Justice Frank Seepersad, attorneys from the Ministry of National Security provided him with the reasons.

Yuanbin Chen, of St Helena, Caroni, came to TT in 2012 and worked as a chef, then established a supermarket. In his lawsuit against the ministry, he said he applied for residency and in 2014, his wife and daughter came from China to join him.

Filed by attorney Michael Xavier, instructing attorney Devon Williams, the lawsuit said Chen was interviewed by immigration authorities. One such interview was to inform him that his file had been lost.

Chen said in his lawsuit that he is a director of Supermix Supermarket, has substantial monetary investment and employs locals. But he said for the past three years, he had been knocking on the doors of immigration offices to find out the reason for the delay in assessing his residential status, but to no avail.

In March, Chen said, immigration gave him a letter saying his application was unsuccessful, but, no reasons were given.

Recently, Chen said, immigration officers tried to remove him and his family from TT, but he filed the lawsuit and they were allowed to remain in the country. When the matter came up for hearing, Xavier told Seepersad that hours before, he had received the reasons.

Leave was granted for Chen to withdraw the lawsuit and the judge ordered the State to pay Chen’s legal costs of $17,500.