METRO VANCOUVER -- The Canada Border Services Agency has issued a removal order for a Mexican man with Stage 4 cancer that would force him to leave his Canadian wife and son and put his life-prolonging treatments on indefinite hold.

Fernando Nuñes, 32, said there are no facilities where he lives in Mexico capable of continuing the treatments he receives at Surrey Memorial Hospital.

“My doctors say that if I don’t get ... the right treatment, my time for living is shorter. They say one year or less. If I go to Mexico I can’t see my son, because he came as a refugee when he came here. He can’t come back to Mexico.”

Nuñes said he came to Vancouver in January 2009 to visit family. His son Fernando, now 11, came with his mother as a refugee and is a Canadian citizen. Nuñes said he overstayed his visitor visa and did odd jobs in construction.

He met his future wife in 2012 and they married in October 2013 after living together for a year. The following January, she applied to sponsor him as a spouse.

In August 2014, after several months of symptoms, Nuñes was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer of the esophagus. The tumour is not operable and the best doctors have been able to do is prevent it from growing using chemotherapy treatments, he said.

The following month, officers from the Canada Border Services Agency came to his home and ordered him to report for an interview downtown. That process culminated in a removal order, even though his wife had applied to sponsor him, because he was in the country illegally at the time of the application.

Nuñes was supposed to leave the country earlier this month, but a Federal Court judge granted a stay of deportation until July 31. By that time, he hopes Citizenship and Immigration Canada will have approved the sponsorship and he will be allowed to stay in Vancouver.

Failing that, Nuñes said he will apply to stay in the country on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, but he would not be allowed to stay in Canada while officials process the request.

It is impossible for his wife to join him in Mexico because she has two children from another relationship and it is unlikely their father would want them to leave the country, Nuñes said.

C.I.C. spokeswoman Nancy Caron confirmed that the department is processing a sponsorship application for Nuñes and that his medical condition will not affect the department’s decision, which will likely come in June or July.

In the meantime, the medical bills continue to pile up. Nuñes is not eligible for coverage under B.C.’s medical services plan. He has private insurance, but said the company is unwilling to pay out because of a misdated medical report, an error he is trying to fix. He owes Surrey Memorial Hospital $30,000 for his treatments to date and his medications cost $400 per month. Even if Nuñes were able to work in Canada legally, he is too sick to do so.