After spending 17 years of her life, raising her children and maintaining her home in a small Welsh community as well as enduring a difficult divorce, Rysia Painter was determined to start a new life.

Uncertain of which way to go, but always remembering the good times she had twenty years earlier as a teenager working as an "au pair" in Montreal, Quebec, she started to look into the possibility of returning to the city that she once loved. After noticing an advertisement in the Overseas Jobs Express and reading an article in the Canada News, concerning the law firm of Brownstein, Brownstein & Associates, she scheduled an appointment with one of their representatives during one of their bi-monthly visits to London.

After attending the meeting with her son, Steven age 15 years old and daughter Jodie age 12 years old, the family had many concerns about the potentially dramatic change in their lifestyle. First of all, Rysia had not been in the work force for the past 15 years and her children were concerned about the different school system that they would enter into.

The main problem Rysia faced was that since she had no records of any high school leaving examinations and had basically no work experience over the past 17 years she was not eligible to immigrate to Canada based on the Quebec regulations nor the regulations for the rest of Canada with the exception of one program called the "Domestic Worker Program".

This program which we eventually renamed the "Live-in Caregiver Program" required the applicant to enter Canada on a work permit as a live-in domestic working a maximum of 53 hours per week while being provided a small salary of $213.00 Canadian dollars per week as well as room and board. Furthermore, the immigration laws allowed dependants to enter Canada on temporary authorizations as students while their mother entered into full time employment. Further, after working on a full time basis as a live-in caregiver for two years, the entire family would be eligible for landed immigrant status based on an application to be completed from within Canada.

The practical problem, however, was that it would be extremely difficult to place Rysia with her two teenageers in an individual's home to work as a live-in caregiver. In most cases, single women fulfilled these positions. However, after listening to Rysia's story and meeting with her children, the lawyers from Brownstein & Brownstein were determined to find a suitable sponsor to assist Rysia in fulfilling this dream.

Shortly after this first consultation, Mr. Mitchell Brownstein contacted Rysia in the United Kingdom to inform her that one of Brownstein's clients, an elderly woman of 92 years of age living alone in a very large home in Westmount, Quebec, required the assistance of a devoted live-in caregiver, who would commit herself to working for at least the two year term required under the domestic program. As this elderly woman had a vacant, large flat in the upper level of her home with three bedrooms and was willing to accomodate Rysia and her children, this placement was ideal. The elderly woman had just lost her brother with whom she had been living for many years and had no other family anywhere in Canada except for an elderly sister who was living in a senior citizen's residence.

In order to obtain Rysia's temporary employment authorization Mr. Mitchell Brownstein accompanied Rysia to her interview at the Quebec Delegation in Brussels, Belgium. After receiving her Certificate of Selection from the Quebec Delegation a formal application was submitted to the Canadian High Commission in London where she received her employment authorization.

Upon her arrival in Canada her lawyers assisted her children in receiving student authorizations to attend school in Montreal and ensured that the entire family integrated into Quebec Society. Rysia became friendly with members of the firm and this elderly woman had now acquired an adopted family with whom she could enjoy. Rysia and her family stayed with this woman into her 95th year and cared for her as if a member of her family, through the final months of a difficult illness.

Two years after arriving in Canada Rysia and her children consider Montreal their home. They have now applied for landed immigrant status. Rysia has found new employment. Steven has recently been accepted at McGill University in their Physics program and Jodie is flourishing in her new school with many new friends.

After obtaining her landed immigrant status, Rysia plans to return to school in order to improve her skills and hopefully land an office job. Although the family has returned to the United Kingdom for one short visit, it is Canada that they now call home.

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