The Canadian Government has reversed a decade-old policy that forced Indians with the last name Singh or Kaur to change their surnames when applying to immigrate to Canada.

For the past 10 years, the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi told Indians wishing to immigrate to Canada that the religious Sikh surnames were too common to process quickly and that a name change would be required. Sikhs typically give baptised males the name Singh and females the name Kaur.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada said on Wednesday it was cancelling the policy, after the World Sikh Organisation raised the issue on Tuesday. Immigration authorities said the policy was a misunderstanding based on a “poorly worded” letter.

Tarvinder Kaur, a Calgary woman waiting for her husband, Jaspal Singh, to arrive in Canada, told reporters that her husband’s permanent residency application had been delayed for over a month because of his last name.

A national Canadian news organisation posted the letter to Kaur from the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi on its Website. The letter, dated May 17 and addressed to Jaspal Singh, said: “Please note that your surname must be endorsed on your passport. The names Kaur and Singh do not qualify for the purpose of immigration to Canada.”

Canadian census figures show that there were 278,410 Sikhs in Canada in 2001.