Tuesday, June 05, 2007

A Landed Immigrant

So today was the big date. A big date with the Canadian Immigration Office that is...

I was nervous and really couldn't eat all too much for lunch. That was just because I was hoping I didn't have to bring P and brought the correct papers with me. (I was just fine.)

I had a 1pm appointment to become a permanent resident of Canada. It was extremely uneventful and nerve racking how long I had to wait!

You see I was the last in line to be given permanent residency. As luck had it, I was #21 out of 21. I wasted away 1. 5 hrs of my time listening to the same questions, same answers over and over again...

The entire time, I was thinking to myself, why not tell me to come at 2pm instead of 1pm!

They asked me about 3 simple questions. The two interviewers were extremely upbeat, polite and so nice. This is definitely different than the rest of the process! The questions were something like:

Are you still married?
Were you ever convicted of a crime?
Were you ever asked to leave the country?
Not really much more than that.

I then signed a carbon copied paper, checked over my information, handed my passport which got stamped, got a hand shake and was told my PR Card would be in the mail in 4 to 6 wks.

Uneventful or what?? Yes extremely. After that, I jetted off and went back to my computer working away...

Some helpful tips.
Bring your letter that has your information and confirmation for PR.
Bring your passport.
Bring your visitor record or work permit with you. These you need to keep for life as they are useful when you apply for Canadian Pension. They just crossed it out, and told me it was now invalid (given that I just landed)...
Bring a book, cross word or something to do! You'll be there waiting for a while..

2 comments:

  1. I'll be sure to pass this along to my father, who has been harping about moving to Canada for the past eight years!

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  2. Hey Holly - I've been through the process so I know what it's like..

    Great hearing from you!

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