After a tough 11-year fight with Immigration Canada, the Viviers family of South Africa finally have their permanent residency papers and the right to apply for Canadian citizenship.

"I still can't believe that I have the papers," said Maggie Viviers. The Prince Rupert family made the trip to the federal government offices in Prince George last week by train due to the dangerous road conditions. "It's a huge relief to hold them in my hand."

Maggie's husband John Viviers and their two children, Domonic and Heloise, all suffer from porphyria, a rare genetic skin disorder that makes them painfully allergic to direct sunlight.

The Viviers family came to Prince Rupert in 1999 on vacation, looking for a city that would be reliably cloudy for as much of the year as possible, which would allow John and the children to live a normal life. They decided to stay and hoped to remain in the country while their paperwork was processed. But Immigration Canada had other ideas and ordered them to leave, sparking a long series of appeals and court dates.

In 2004, then-federal immigration minister Judy Sgro granted the Viviers temporary residency for two years on compassionate grounds and in 2006 the Viviers were finally allowed to apply for permanent residency.

"The fight took so long it's hard to believe it's over," Viviers said. "It's still sinking in."

"It was very difficult," said Maggie. "We weren't allowed to work for five years and the children couldn't go to school."

But the people of Prince Rupert were behind the Viviers all the way, donating "90 per cent" of their furniture and supporting them financially.

"They gave so much I had to send some to the Salvation Army," she said.

John, Domonic and Heloise are all much healthier now than they ever were living under the searing South African sun, she said. "Here they can absolutely live normally."

The entire family is more settled now. John is working and Heloise is studying with an eye to becoming a lawyer, having already published her first novel, Universal Change.

"Everything we did, everything we gave up so that the children could live a normal life, was worth it," she said.

The Viviers can apply for Canadian citizenship in 2011.

It can't come soon enough for Viviers. "I want my Canadian passport," she said.

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