British Columbia

An update for anyone that was following this story

Nariman Ajjur has been fighting for more than 19 months to bring her family to safety.

Her nephew was in the hospital recently; the toddler was hurt in an airstrike that killed his father and injured his mother. Ajjur says her parents and four other siblings are also trapped in the middle of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.

“I have been forced to find the certificate for my brother to complete this application, including extensive information of background checks and even after doing all that, our families are still waiting. We have no words left. I don’t know what to say to my family now. They are asking if they will get to safety soon.”

Her family completed the security screenings under Canada’s Special Immigration Measures for Gaza.

The last step is to get their biometrics done to have their visa approved.

Unfortunately, there is no place in Gaza to get that done, unless they are evacuated to a place where they can do biometrics, Ajjur explained.

She said this leaves her family stranded with more than 3,000 Gazans who’ve met the same requirements with family in Canada.

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From Monday to Thursday beginning July 14, we'll highlight a series of different symbols to represent B.C. on CBC Radio One and CBC Vancouver News, with features on cbc.ca/bc. Then it's up to you! Jump online and click on the daily voting link on this page to answer polls and vote for your favourite symbol. One by one, symbols will be eliminated based on your votes until the final one is crowned B.C.'s Best Symbol!

Quick Facts:

• The changes to the bylaws follow similar changes recently adopted in Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
• Between May and June 2025, B.C. has received nearly 780 job applications spanning all health regions: 181 for Interior Health, 154 for Fraser Health, 121 for Vancouver Coastal Health, 112 for Island Health, 70 for Providence Health Care, 66 for Provincial Health Services Authority and 63 for Northern Health (some applicants may have applied to more than one health authority).
• The Province is taking a Team B.C. approach to recruiting health-care workers from the U.S., and is working in collaboration with health authorities, regulatory colleges and other partners.
• The Province launched a targeted U.S. marketing campaign on June 2, 2025, in Washington, Oregon and select cities in California.

To further improve recruitment, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. (CPSBC) implemented bylaw changes on July 7, 2025, that benefit doctors trained outside of Canada. Since then, CPSBC has received 29 registration applications from U.S. doctors.