Almost there...

I fully expected to be writing this post next week, but here I am, writing it tonight.  The High Commission called today, my visa is ready, I can collect my passport next Tuesday.  Wow!  One month I am coasting along and nothing much is happening and I am counting time in months...next month things are happening in the snap of a finger and I am counting in weeks and days!

My tickets are booked, G got those done this week.  Arrangements are being made for my Mom and brother to collect me and my belongings from Kingston and return us to Westmoreland, but those are yet to be finalized apart from the date.  My Grandmother will be here to see me off, and I am very happy about that.

Wow, I hear a clock ticking.  I am excited, at last.  I cannot wait to be home with my husband, I am excited by the idea that we will wake up together again and neither he nor I will have to leave each other, except for work.   It has been quite a wait, and our separation these past months means we have a lot of time to make for.  I plan to take at least a couple of weeks to do nothing more than live with my husband, enjoy all the little things we have been missing, and acclimatize to my new environment.

Back to waiting

It'll be a week tomorrow since I turned in my PP to the High Commission for the insertion of my permanent resident visa.  I estimate another 1-2 weeks wait for them to get around to doing so and contacting me to return to pick it up, since this past week included two statutory holidays.

In the meanwhile, I finally began making all those lists I needed to make to guide my activities over the coming weeks as I prepare to move.  First, I prepared a list of the lists I needed to prepare.  Yes, I am mildly OCD about the lists, I suppose I could have just leaped into the process, but first I wanted to ensure I was considering everything I needed to do.  I then proceeded to mis-place that list and give myself a mild panic attack as I searched for it, believing I simply had to find THAT ONE rather than make a new one.  I did eventually relocate it, but my BP did spike there for about half an hour.

So I found the list of lists, and began making each list.  I have so far fleshed out lists on the clothes I will be taking with me, what furniture I own and how I will dispose of them, what books from my collection I plan to take with me, what happens to my kitchen things, who in Canada I plan to purchase souvenirs for, what I need to do regarding my lease and utilities, and what I will do regarding my various work commitments. *whew*  I have a lot to do!

Still, there is time, as I am allowing work commitments to dictate most of my movements.  I want to leave with a clear work record, I have worked hard for the trust clients and employers put in me, I want to ensure that when I go, they keep a good memory of me, and that if needed they are willing to recommend me to new employers in Canada.

In the meanwhile, I am also spending time with family and friends and Jamaica as much as possible.  This weekend I managed to get in time with my closest friend in Kingston, drive around the north and south coasts of Jamaica, and spend valuable time with my Mom and younger brother in Negril.  I needed this time, I enjoyed my activities without the parting sadness I know will accompany my next trip to Westmoreland.

PPR!!

O.M.G.  The all-important passport request (PPR) call has finally come.  It lasted less than a minute, and that was all it took to turn my head upside down.  The crossroads I have been journeying towards is now in sight!

So, I take my passport in Tuesday, and I wait for the call to return to collect it.  My plans for going home to my husband before our second anniversary are very probable now, they are no longer just a possibility.

I have so much to organize and plan.  First, though, a celebration.  Getting this far required a lot of learning, a lot of hard work and expense, and no small amount of patience and I think I shall congratulate myself a little.  Insofar as I have mostly resisted the urge to whine or complain, insofar as I have spent the time waiting fruitfully, I believe it is OK to congratulate myself that much and to celebrate. *cheers*

As of yesterday morning, all the documents I was requested to submit have been handed over to the Canadian embassy.

My second medical exam was done by the same doctor who did the first.  A mostly painless and highly efficient process; I really do like this doctor.  The pain was from the required blood tests, and of course I had to psych myself up for that.  I almost passed out when she labeled two vials, I had forgotten they took quite that much blood!  After the obligatory BP test and physical once-over, he pronounced himself satisfied and I went to get the X-ray done.  That involved some waiting, but that was because a trauma victim came in at the same time and had to be seen to.

Earlier in the morning I went to get my fingerprints done.  On Monday I had quite the drama with the taxi driver I hired to take me to the tax office to make the payment for this.  He mis-heard my address and kept me waiting for 20 minutes before he mis-heard where I wanted to go and wasted another 10 minutes of my time going in the wrong direction.  I was not pleased.  This was somewhat mitigated by the lack of drama with making the payment, the cashier was only interested in my taxpayer registration number and the fees.

Going to get the fingerprints done was less dramatic.  I went fully prepared for the long wait and found myself surprised to be the 43rd person in line at 8:00 a.m.  A year ago at the same time I was 163rd in line.  The mystery was solved when I learned they had opened 3 other fingerprinting centres across the island, thereby eliminating the necessity of everyone needing a police report coming into Kingston.

I made myself comfortable for the wait with a book, and just moved through the musical chair process in a very Zen state.  There actually were a few people I engaged in conversation and enjoyed it, but for the most part I was entertained by Dean Koontz.  The tech was actually polite and well-mannered this time, and male, as opposed to the surly female I had last time.  Perhaps she has been moved to one of the other locations.

I waited out the week (5 business days) for the police report to be ready, then went to collect it.  That involved some drama, but I am so glad this whole process is over with insofar as dealing with Jamaican authorities are, that I won't even repeat any of it here.

I bought an envelope, labelled it neatly in block letters with our names and file number and enclosed the police report along with a letter explaining why I should be exempted from providing a new FBI report, accompanied by neatly labeled and referenced copies of my passport pages.  On my way to work, I looped up to the embassy, instead of passing below it, and dropped the window off at the heavily blacked out drop off window.  Very odd experience, talking to someone you cannot see who is right in front of you.  

Next step: wait for the embassy to call and request my passport, the all-important PPR (passport request).  I am hoping to hear back in about two weeks' time, on the assumption that the medical results can be received and processed in 3 weeks.   In the meanwhile, time to start making lists of all that I need to do!

Do over

Well, I hadn't quite expected to be writing this post quite so soon after getting that "in process" update, but in the mailbox today was a grayish envelope with "Canada" and the little maple leaf motif on it, and inside were documents requesting I do my medical examination and police record (again).  I am honestly astonished.  The letters are dated Feb 21, and the in process update says they began processing the information on Feb 20.  The envelope is post-marked Feb 22, and sometime between yesterday and today it arrived in my mailbox.  Wow.

Of course, all this marvelous efficiency is not without its faults.  They addressed the letters to me as Mrs. (insert maiden name).  This, after I sent them a copy of my new passport with my assumed married name and after I completed a new personal information form with said new last name and sent to them, 6 and 3 months ago respectively.  Really?

I am going to hope that the Tax Department does not get pissy with me when I go to pay for my fingerprints to be done, given that the forms are issued to Mrs. (insert maiden name) and I am Mrs. (insert married name) nee (insert maiden name) on my ID and taxpayer registration.  Just in case, I have decided to take along my marriage certificate and the passport with my former name to show to them, so they don't give me a hard time.  Caught between the ridiculousness of two bureaucracies!

So, now I need to book an appointment to see the doctor, I need to get time off from work to deal with the police certificate and said medical, and I need to prove I have not been to the US since 2010, in order not to have to go through the rigmarole of getting another FBI certificate.

Suddenly it dawns on me, now that events have started moving, that soon I will be moving my whole life.  I just posted something on FB referring to us as being at the end, and my perceptive hubby posted that we are actually nearing the beginning.  A new beginning is coming, and it's no longer on the horizon, it is in port and coming in to dock.  Wow, I've got a lot to do!

12 weeks to the beginning of June...I need to have myself set to leave by then, that's my timeline.

"In Process"

Last night, sometime around the time I would be getting ready for bed on a Friday night, an email came into my mailbox from the eCAS (electronic client application status) tracker: It appears your application has been updated.

I am certain I couldn't click that email to open it fast enough.  Sure enough, it was the long-awaited "In Process" email, which announced that they received my application on May 19, 2011 (yes, we know!) and began processing said application on February 20, 2012.  Nine months to the day, CHC-Kingston got off their hands and began processing my application.  Hallelujah.

From here on out, the actual processing should go much faster than the sitting around.  Background check, criminality and security checks, and the medical check.  The last one is where I will be held up, as I no longer have a valid medical and cannot be issued a visa without one.

I have decided to wait for the embassy to issue the form requesting that I re-do my medical exam, although I do not strictly have to wait.  It's just that, at this stage, attempts to be pro-active may be counter-productive as some over-zealous and not very well-informed embassy staffer might feel that I should have waited, and proceed to waste my time and money by demanding I use the form issued to me and not accepting the results of the medical I initiated myself.  Nowhere in the Regulations, the Act, or the Operating Manual does it say I have to wait, but some people like to assert their one single iota of authority by insisting on not accepting results of a medical they did not order themselves.

Week before last was such a rough week.  I was greatly upset by the news that a friend had received an in process update.  Naturally, she had applied to sponsor her husband, and having done so in August 2011 (6 months after we filed, 3 months after CHC-Kingston received our file), her husband had gotten his in process update on February 12th, four months after his file was received.  I was stunned.  Here I had sat all this time, and with this kind of time lapse between our applications, and her husband's application was being processed before mine?  The arbitrariness and unfairness of the process hit me especially hard, and I could not be as happy for them as I wanted to be.  I did a lot of exercise in order to burn off the feelings of anger and depression.

To restore my equilibrium, I felt it was necessary to do something more.  So I decided to spring clean.  Yes, a month early.  I pulled out bags and bags of old papers I had been "hoarding" since I came to Kingston to live, and went through a suitcase full of clothing and found that only six pieces in it could still fit or be given away because everything else was hopelessly tight, or too dated.  I cleaned and I threw away things until the apartment felt lighter, and so did I.  I did suffer some mild discomfort at discarding these things, I do not like to throw things away I feel might be useful, but they needed to go.  As things stand now, I won't need to deal with these things when it comes time to make the big move.

And now, it's finally time to accept that I ought to be in a leaving frame of mind, and I need not suppress or question it.  I am hopeful that the embassy does not insist on mailing me my medical request when I live less than a kilometre (less than ten minutes' walk) from the embassy.  I would much prefer to go there and collect it, than to have it take two weeks to go through the mail in the circuitous manner of Jamaica Post.  Efficiency and common-sense are not, however, their bywords.

I am hopeful that everything left to be done will happen in good time, though.  I did not get my wish of a winter arrival, so I am hopeful that spring will not pass before we are together again.

8 months and counting

My Canadian immigration medical expired today.  Had I not received our file notes 3 weeks ago and learned that absolutely nothing has been done towards the processing of my file, other than the obligatory "initial screening" of the paperwork, I might be more depressed than I am right now.

Each applicant is subject to 4 checks:

• eligibility (is our relationship valid and genuine?), 
• background (am I inadmissible for any reason relating to my affiliations with organizations, have I disclosed everything I am required to?)
• criminality (am I inadmissible by reason of any criminal charges or convictions?)
• medical (am I inadmissible by reason of any medical conditions?)

As a spouse, I am exempt from being medically inadmissible, but if I had any conditions which might present a threat to the public, I would be subject to "medical surveillance", or the care of a specified Canadian doctor and conditions which I would have to comply with.

None of these checks have been initiated.  In the eight months since CHC-Kingston received my file, exactly nothing has been done with it.  At this point I can now understand why Kingston needs an average of 16 months to process 80% of files, they apparently spend the first 8 doing nothing with the vast majority of them.

What makes this pill so particularly bitter to swallow is I have watched husband after husband after husband sponsored by their Canadian wives AFTER me be processed BEFORE me.  I have cynically concluded that they are rushing these men out of Jamaica in 6 or 7 months in order to prevent them from getting too restless and cheating on their absent wives.  Meanwhile, as a wife, they are leaving me here in excess of 9 months in order to ensure I haven't gone and cheated on my husband and tried to present him with a "jacket" (illegitimate child, in Jamaican parlance).  

Yes, I am bitter, but I am not talking without some numbers to support this.  Of all the cases listed on visa forum, most are husbands.  And the few wives listed have all been subjected to processing that lasted more than a year, for some reason.  Except one, and really, she doesn't count as she was Bahamian and is visa-exempt, and they tend to push those through quickly.   

The only upside to this delay is that my current employer is amenable, is encouraging me to pursue my qualifications to membership and providing a great deal of support for me to do so.  I can't complain, job-wise.  

But I miss my husband, I really do.  It's been 7 months since we've been together, and I have no idea when next he's going to be here, as the recent developments in his family mean he's bound in Canada at least until March.  So, now is the winter of my discontent.  Maybe things will be better in spring.