A week-long trip to help her mother in Ohio turned into a “horrific” ordeal for Sarah Arvanitis when she was denied entry back into Canada and separated from her young daughter.

Arvanitis, 35, has filed a complaint with the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) against her Hamilton immigration lawyer, funded through Legal Aid Ontario. She alleges the “devastating” three-month separation came after she was denied entry into Canada on the grounds she was missing a key document — a permanent residency application she says her lawyer assured her had been filed.