Category Archives: Immigration

Canada, Immigration

We are quicksilver, a fleeting shadow, a distant sound… our home has no boundaries beyond which we cannot pass. We live in music, in a flash of color… we live on the wind and in the sparkle of a star!

Wow. The blog has been silent awhile, hasn’t it.

I’m leaving for Wa tomorrow. Not as expected. I’m going to be traveling down without Wil. There has been a death in my family, and it’s important that I go and be with the people who need me right now. Death in the family is one of the emergencies that should allow me to travel alone, and still get back into Canada. Hopefully.

Wil does not have his passport yet, it should be arriving by registered mail on Friday the 6th. So he will be coming down on the 7th and we’ll drive home together on the 8th. So I will be with my husband when I get back to Canada, however, not the entire time I travelled. Nonetheless, my lawyer said I have a good reason. Worst case scenario, I will not be let back in. At this point, I am very close to getting my VISA. It would suck, but not as much as if it were six months ago or last year.

I did receive my work permit. On my work permit it states “Application for PR status has received initial approval.” PR = Permanent Residence. That works in my favor as well.

I don’t feel quite as excited as you’d think I would feel. Well, one – it’s a death in the family. And I am quite shocked and saddened right now. Two – I am paranoid. I think I will always be paranoid until I have my visa. I’m quite sure that Wil will get tired of all the strategizing I will do next week, via email, on his entrance into the states. “If they say this, answer that. Don’t say this unless they ask. Carry X,Y and Z with you. Make a copy of that thing.” And so on. Why I should worry about his entrance into the states is beyond me. Canadians come down to the states ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME. Plus, he’s a grown up. Maybe because things went all wonky for me coming into Canada two and a half years ago, I’m always going to be a freak about it. I hope not, because I have hopes for us going back and forth as we like many times. God forbid I turn into some kind of anal retentive freak about it.

Three, I will miss him. I always thought when I got married I would have to marry someone who is SUPER understanding because I would be FIERCELY independent. None of that mooshy stuff when one of us had to travel with the other. But it’s been two and a half years of pretty much constant companionship. One time, Wil went to Victoria for a couple of nights without me. But other than that, not a day has gone by, you know? So, I’m really going to miss him. I’m already missing him and I haven’t left yet. Turns out, I’m mooshy.

He, however, will probably beer drinking no pants boy parties with video games and cigarettes and no girls allowed.

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Canada, Immigration, William

A truly thankful Thanksgiving

I just got a call from a nice lady in the immigration offices in Alberta. We’ll call her Jane. Because for some reason, I don’t want to use her real name. She had some questions that Wil and I need to clear up for her, by writing a short paragraph of explaination and faxing it to her. Easy peasy.

Jane is a very nice lady, I think she liked me. She spent several minutes talking to me about my application and what the next steps will be. She told me to go ahead and fax her an application for a work permit! I was thrilled to hear that because months of unemployment for Wil, and years for me, have taken a toll. Of course, I don’t know how helpful it will be in today’s economy. I suppose it depends on what I am willing to do. What I am NOT willing to do is phone support. Neither is Wil, for that matter.

To make matters better, I talked to her about traveling across the border and she told me that I could travel across the border as long as Wil was with me. My application came from within Canada because it is a hardship to be away from my husband. He supports me. This fact makes it risky to cross into the states without him. How much of a hardship could it be if I left the country without him. But if I am with him…

This means as soon as we get Wil’s passport, we will be able to go to the States. And, as long as any working schedules allow, we can go home for American Thanksgiving. I wouldn’t think this would make me cry, but all of the sudden I found myself crying. Wil is not home right now, which is probably for the best, because I am sure he wouldn’t know quite what to do with me in this state.

Someone is processing my application! Soon, I may be able to work! I will, most likely be home for Christmas! ( to quote a famous song)

I do not know how long it will take to get my approval letter. (at that point I take it to the local immigration office and apply for my card.) I am just so thrilled to have this news. These steps to take.

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Canada, Immigration, William

Liar Liar Pants

Last week, we kept getting phone calls from “Private Caller”, with no number displayed. They were very persistent. Both Wil and I are … hesitant to answer the phone when we don’t know who it is. I have had too many years of scary bad credit. And both of us too much time spent doing phone technical support to ever trust that any phone call is not going to come with a time consuming request. Plus, we were busy. Playing World of Warcraft. 

After the 10th call that day, I answered the phone. Recently, I had been victim to Roger’s willingness to give out my home number to one of the “authorized” retail partners. They called and called and called. We ignored them. (I would pick up the phone and say “Hello-two-three” and hang up. A trick I learned dealing with afore mentioned horrible credit. If you don’t answer in 3 seconds, chances are I don’t want to talk to you. ) Finally requested to be removed from these lists. So when a woman I didn’t know asked for me, some kind of paranoid instinct kicked in and I said I wasn’t home. I don’t know why. I tried to take a message, and that’s when she said she was calling from the CIC. Canadian Immigration. 
I freaked out. What was I supposed to do now? Backtrack and admit I lied and that I was home. Explain to her about the near harassment level of sales pitches we’ve been getting because of our wireless contracts? Hope she thought it was funny. I couldn’t admit to Immigration that I had lied to them, even in such a benign manner, and it was totally innocent and benign, albeit extremely paranoid! So I carried on. She said she would call Jodi’s representative, I said I would tell Jodi they called and hung up. Then I ran in to the room and woke Wil up from his nap to tell him that I LIED TO IMMIGRATION and that was going to hell and no way were they gonna let a liar in to the country. Because lies are the first step to terrorism, right? 
Turns out my lawyer had made a few mistakes on the form and they just needed some corrections. But it means they are, at last, processing my application. 
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books, Canada, Immigration, movies and tv, Wedding, William

It’s not a toy. It makes real cupcakes, with a 40 watt bulb, and there’s icing packets. But the secret ingredient is love. Damn it.

The other day I left a comment, on a blog, in which I referred to Wil as my fiancé. Such a highfalutin word. I don’t use it often, but the differentiation between boyfriend and someone you are going to marry soon was relevant to the blog entry, I felt. Besides, I only have a few more days to use it. Then I will have to refer to him as My Husband. As in “When driving to the mall, my husband likes to point out the hookers on street corners to me.”*

Or I could just call him Wil.

So, I think I am more stressed than I expected to be, considering how simple and small the ceremony is. I haven’t been sleeping well, and while the things my mind is worrying about seem to be about immigration stuff, there is a new feeling of stress in my tummy I can only attribute to the fact that soon I am going to have to get dressed up and get married in front of people. It’s getting married itself. I think it’s just that being a bride is nerve racking.

I’ve been watching some bridal shows on the television lately. (My favorite is Wedding SOS on Slice, a Canadian cable channel that is so full of crap shows it’s slogan is “My vice is Slice..” It’s delightful. I took a quiz, on Slice, to find out what type of wedding I should have. See below.**) It would appear that being a bride gives me license for just about any kind of behavior. Serious. If you are a bride, you can freak out, make demands, tell people what to do, tell people what to wear, drink to excess, scream, cry, punch… anything. And it’s all ok because YOU ARE THE BRIDE. As a groom, Wil has a lesser power. It may work on other people, but it won’t work against THE BRIDE. She trumps everything. Only one person would dare challenge THE BRIDE. And that is the the less sympathetic character of mother-in-law. But that’s not an issue for me.

So, I should make some demands. I’ve put a lot of thought into it, and the only thing I can think of: I don’t have enough cake in my life. There won’t be a wedding cake. And since I am a bride, I should be eating cake. Therefore, my demand is – cupcakes. I want some freakin’ cupcakes and I want them NOW! Where are my MOTHER FUCKING CUPCAKES?? WHY DON’T I HAVE ANY CUPCAKES???

How’s that?

*It’s true. I always miss the hookers unless Wil points them out. The route to the mall passes a few popular corners.

**Viva Las Vegas! Eloping ain?t so bad and it might be an option for you. If you’re not into big parties, being the centre of attention, or planning and organizing things, eloping might be a blessing for you. Just remember to tell people that you’re planning on going to Vegas , maybe they’d like to come along and put money on how long you and hubby’ll last.

EDITED TO ADD ANOTHER DEMAND: As THE BRIDE, I would like my new Harry Potter book NOW, rather than Saturday. I think that’s doable, yes?

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Canada, Immigration, Wedding, William

Put on your big girl panties and deal with it, Jodi

Ok, brace yourself, because here are the things I am going to be bitching about for the rest of the summer.

1. Planning my … OUR… wedding, which takes place in 5 weeks. Surprise!

2. Getting the stuff together to apply for my VISA, and Wil’s sponsorship of my VISA, which has to be completed well before Sept. 1st.

The visa application asks for verification of things that we simply cannot verify. I have not kept track of everywhere I’ve lived since I was 18 years old. And I KNOW Wil has no clue. It has me a bit worried.

But hey, I’m getting married! We were trying to keep it quiet, but we failed, so I can blog about it now. You may congratulate me…. NOW.

EDITED TO ADD: Ok, I should take the bitching about the wedding back. Everything has been really easy and worked out well so far. And I promise this won’t be a topic of much discussion other than to describe how easy it’s been. It will all be over in five weeks. The wedding part. I’m sorry I can’t invite you all, but it’s very very very small and simple. But I know I hate hearing people talk about their upcoming weddings, so I won’t do that to you.

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