Something I’m going to try and start doing in the next few weeks is to talk more about the process of immigrating to Canada that Rebecca and I have been going through. And it really is a conjoined process for the person who is sponsoring someone to immigrate as well as the person who is immigrating. Basic, simple low down to what that means is that you need time, patience, money, and attention to detail. A good lawyer doesn’t hurt either, but there are those that have done okay without.
I have my appointment this week with immigration to finalize the landed status of my permanent residence process. I won’t have citizenship(because that’s another long, somewhat expensive process), but that means that they can’t kick me out of the country unless I really screw the pooch.
One thing I had to get is my own pictures for the PR card I’ll be getting issued this week. Basically, that’s the same as a green card in the U.S., and London Drugs has been a really good resource for getting any official photography done for this entire process.
However, be aware that with all of the madness going on for Canadians applying for passports (mainly due to the new travel restrictions for going to the U.S.) will cause you to deal with slow processing of getting said photos. London Drugs does the passport photos as well, and there must have been ten people in there today going for the same thing. I held up the place with my little PR card photos because the requirements are slightly different than that of passport photos, and they only had one camera at the location I went to.
At this point, I’ve got everything in place for my appointment. This will be the first time I will meet anyone face to face at Canadian Immigration, so there is a tad bit of apprehension. More so, just that nagging feeling that you want to make sure that you have everything you need. The way that immigration works in Canada, which can feel very lazy at times, it might be a couple weeks to a month before you can make another appointment if you forget something. Here’s hoping!
You could have saved yourself a whole lot of trouble if you would have just crossed the border, assumed a life…and told the government you were from somewhere OTHER than the USA…they would have been handing you checks and a free pass.
I can sense you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel…good on ya.
As an immigration attorney in the U.S. who works with petitioning families every day, it is interesting to hear about this process the other way round. Of course, my clients don’t generally begin the process properly, but it can take years here, even though petitioning for a spouse is just about the quickest way to a green card.
P.S. My husband’s from Iowa too.
ugh – good luck. I’ve been hearing a TUN of horrific passport type stories… 🙁
hey John,
Just realised reading Miss604 of your successful PR Status. Congratulations!! As a PR from the UK (Aug05)I can sympathise with the process, the time and many of your comments.
I look forward to reading more …
GZ Expat – Light at the end of the tunnel doesn’t even begin to explain it.
Texasxica – Stay tuned as I will be posting more soon. 🙂
Mel – The experience was really, really pleasant. In fact, it was quick. I’ll post more later.
Stewart – Thanks! It’s been a hell of a process, but we made it! 🙂