They came to Canada for safety. Now they’re suspected of supporting the regime they fled

Farzin Jafari finished two years of mandatory military service with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2011. In August, he received a letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada that said his permanent residency application could be denied due to concerns he is still a member. (Isabel Harder/CBC)

Farzin Jafari is facing an impossible choice: wait and hope the Canadian government allows him and his family to remain in Canada, or leave his wife and infant daughter in hopes they can stay if he's deemed inadmissible and forced to return to Iran.

We are hanging from a rope as a family, he said. If I leave that rope, open my hand, and fall… at least my family can stay alive.

Jafari is one of what one advocacy group says is hundreds of permanent residency applicants who received a Procedural Fairness Letter (PFL) from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in August.