Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The Final Insult

Top of the afternoon all...

As many of you know, Jennifer and I have been applying for permanent residence here in Canada.  This process started more than three years ago.  Our application has finally been approved.  Please allow me to recount some of the fun details.

Our initial application disappeared.  Are you all aware of the rule in physics that matter cannot be created or destroyed?  It is nonsense.  Our permanent residence package proves that matter can in fact be destroyed.

We had to submit a new application.  By this point, the law had changed.  Jennifer and I had to prove that we could speak either English or French with some degree of proficiency.  That's right everyone.  Two people, born, raised, and educated in the United States, with multiple degrees from multiple institutions of higher learning, had to prove proficiency in English.  We had to prove our proficiency to people whose English was not on our level.  They had no clue why we were there.  C'est magnifique!!

Then we got word that all was proceeding, and that we had to get our immigration physicals.  We did.  Ottawa lost the results.  I had to contact both my lawyer and my representative in Parliament to get them located.  At least we did not have to do them a second time.  Throughout, Immigration Canada's website informed all who wanted to know that the average processing time for this application was 15 months.

Ottawa did whatever it had to do in order to approve the package.  Ottawa then forwarded the package to the consulate in Buffalo for final processing in May.  The consulate in Buffalo closed in June.  Our package was sent back to Ottawa for the final processing.  With all that had happened up until this point, I told Jennifer that I was certain the package had fallen off the truck.

In the meantime, we decided to refinance our mortgage.  Rates have dropped precipitously over the last several months.  The bank told us that we would not be able to do so until we had permanent status.

Ottawa forwarded our package to the consulate in Detroit.  We received an e-mail with instructions on what to do next.  This e-mail came on the first day of our ten-day vacation in New Jersey, with a time limit of 30 days.  It included requirements for passport-size pictures, according to specifications set out on the weblink.  The problem is that the weblink specifically said that the size was not that of a passport picture.  That gave us another delay while we figured out the right size for the pictures.  I am glad that we did not have to retake them.  It would have been another $80.

So today, I was fishing around on Immigration Canada's website for more information.  They have updated the processing times.  Now, instead of requiring 15 months to process a permanent residence package, Immigration Canada has streamlined it to 48 business days.

You may now all laugh.

R/SCG


2 comments:

  1. Laughing was not the first thing that came to my mind. I'm glad to hear it's finally been done - mazel tov!

    ReplyDelete