A Prince George woman remains hopeful authorities will eventually allow her Nigerian-born husband into this country despite a prolonged battle in which the case currently sits in a bureaucratic limbo.
Robyn Omayone is perhaps best known as the mother who gave birth in late November to son Skyler while husband Tony had to rely on a Skype connection to witness the occasion from Vienna, Austria.
Four months later, the couple remains as far apart as ever, despite being the formally-married parents of a bouncing baby boy.
They met through an online matchmaking service five years ago and got married in Vienna in February 2012. Tony has been living in Austria since 2006 where he has been seeking asylum as a refugee from the African country.
"He was protesting against the government and one of the protest groups broke into an oil refinery and they kidnapped some workers and they blew up an oil line and in doing so a couple of other workers were killed," Robyn said.
"They put the blame on the group that Tony was involved with and the soldiers started going around and arresting people....Tony and a few others jumped a ship and got into Europe."
She said there remains a chance that Tony will be deported from Austria but also noted Nigeria has not issued an arrest warrant for her husband.
Robyn conceded the Canadian government may be waiting for Austria to make a decision before addressing the couple's application to allow him into this country.
But they continue to keep pushing, although it hasn't been easy.
The couple has already successfully appealed a decision to reject their request after securing a marriage licence - a three-year process in itself - just after the initial application was processed.
But it has meant going back to square one and because Canada no longer maintains a high commission in Nigeria, they've been working through one in Ghana.
The high commission there insists on the couple traveling to Ghana for an interview but they're now seeking permission to have that part of the process transferred to Austria. Otherwise, Tony risks not being allowed back into the country once he leaves.
Further complicating matters, there was a discrepancy over Tony's birth date in one of the documents they had sent to the high commission which raised some questions that Robyn said was due to a simple clerical error.
If the Canadian government refuses to budge, Robyn said she and her son will move to Austria but would rather reunite with her husband on this side of the world. They last saw each other in person when they got married but continue to keep in contact through the internet.
"Like the vow says, 'till death do us part,'" she said. "I don't plan on going anywhere and he doesn't plan on going anywhere, so as long as we're being faithful to each other, why not keep trying to go forward?"
