CFL quarterback Henry Burris, who has completed 3,987 passes for 55,254 yards over his Canadian football career, can't seem to gain any yardage in his attempt to become a Canadian citizen.
Burris first played in Canada back in 1997 spending time with Calgary and Saskatchewan before playing with the NFL and NFL Europe but he has been back in Canada since the 2003 season.
He and his wife have have spent thousands of dollars on an immigration lawyer trying to find a way for him to become a Canadian citizen but so far, Burris says he has been stopped because his job as quarterback of the Ottawa RedBlacks is considered a part-time job.
“They said it’s not deemed a full-time job because it’s only six months. It’s not (a job) that anybody can just walk up and apply for or there’s not an ad in the paper for people to apply, so, I mean, it seems like every angle we’ve tried we just get turned away,” Burris told the Ottawa Sun.
“We’re still at Square One. I guess there’s this whole points process now … all the attributes you bring to the table qualify for a certain amount of qualification points, and for some reason we don’t qualify.
“Everything we’ve done in the community and how long we’ve lived up here and started our own pizza franchise out in Calgary, all these different things don’t even give us any points towards getting us into the system of being a landed (immigrant).”
Burris, who has been very active in Ottawa as a community booster in the off-season, has been told that if he were to get a full-time office job that might help he acquire the Canadian citizenship he and his family want.
UPDATE: See update on Burris getting citizenship here.
It appears that while he may have lived here for ten years, he only began his application three years ago. It may be much ado about nothing based on big bureaucracy tardiness.
All kidding aside, it makes one wonder how many other people with just as good of a track record but not a big profile end up just walking away and taking their talents elsewhere.
That would be TEMPORARY part time.