OK, the big news.
(Before we get into any of this, I'm going to post a mini-reminder of the backstory so nobody's lost: I'm an American trying to immigrate to Canada, Immigration Canada has been jerking me around for over a year, and my lawyer finally called on November 27th to tell me that Immigration Canada wanted my passport. Apparently this is the very last step before becoming a landed immigrant. You send them your passport, they put a visa in it and send it back, you drive to the border and come through Canadian customs, and *ta-da* you are a landed immigrant. It takes up to fifteen business days for them to send the passport back so we figured they'd run into the Christmas holidays and shelve it until after the New Year; so we were hoping to get me landed in mid-January. Once I am landed I can work here legally, live here legally with no risk of being kicked out, and get health care coverage. Important stuff.)
(Also, the day after my immigration lawyer called to tell me about the passport, she unexpectedly smacked me with a $1,750 (Canadian dollars) charge that I didn't know we had to pay. This becomes important later, so remember that.)
Yesterday morning, around 11am. Frolic comes in to wake me up, all excited. "Your lawyer called, your passport is back!" he says. I am rather surprised as we weren't expecting to get my passport back until mid-January. I am also rather upset because we don't have the money to rent a car and go down to Niagara Falls, so now I have to deal with the frustration of knowing that my life is waiting for me and I can't go get it sorted. I tell Frolic not to bother waking me up next time since there's nothing we can do anyway so now I'm just tired and pissed. Not a good moment. I am miserable and irritated.
I notice my parent's Christmas card arrived that day in the mail and the sealed envelope is with the rest of the mail on the living room table. I grumpily open it up and read it, moving the check aside without looking at it. I was hoping for $150 which is usually what they send us for Christmas. In the card my mom wrote - "Use the money for your immigration, and use the leftover money (1.3 exchange rate as of today) for gifts." I look at the check and burst into tears. It's for $1,750 U.S. My parents sent us a check that completely covered all the money I needed for my immigration. Did I say I burst into tears? What I actually meant was I was sobbing my eyes out. I can't believe how generous that was of them. I'm still astounded by the generosity of that gift. I can't believe they did that.
I tearfully tell Frolic we can afford to rent a car now so we call up the car rental company, get a car, and set off for Niagara Falls. We come through Customs, I sign a few papers, and that's it. "You're landed," the customs guy says. I ask him, "Can you say, 'Welcome to Canada'?" He smiles and says, "Welcome to Canada."
In a way it was an anticlimactic moment - part of me thought there should be bells and whistles, maybe a bunch of balloons released from the ceiling. At a minimum there should have been a blinking sign surrounded by lights and a line of chorus girls. But at least I got to hear the customs guy say, "Welcome to Canada," just like I'd read in all those stories posted on the Canadian Immigration Limbo support group.
Frolic hugged me and we left. We drove back to Toronto as quickly as possible because the office for SIN numbers (the Canadian equivalent of a Social Security Number - you can't work without one) closed at 4 PM. We squeaked in at 3:40 PM and I now have a little piece of paper that says I can work legally in Canada. For the first time in five years I felt like a normal, contributing member of society. Knowing that I can walk into anywhere and hand over my resume, that I don't have to scratch by on whatever under-the-table jobs I can find, is a great feeling.
So, there's my big news. I'm landed. My parents gave me the most amazing and thoughtful gift ever. Everything is pretty damn amazing at the moment.
(Also, the day after my immigration lawyer called to tell me about the passport, she unexpectedly smacked me with a $1,750 (Canadian dollars) charge that I didn't know we had to pay. This becomes important later, so remember that.)
Yesterday morning, around 11am. Frolic comes in to wake me up, all excited. "Your lawyer called, your passport is back!" he says. I am rather surprised as we weren't expecting to get my passport back until mid-January. I am also rather upset because we don't have the money to rent a car and go down to Niagara Falls, so now I have to deal with the frustration of knowing that my life is waiting for me and I can't go get it sorted. I tell Frolic not to bother waking me up next time since there's nothing we can do anyway so now I'm just tired and pissed. Not a good moment. I am miserable and irritated.
I notice my parent's Christmas card arrived that day in the mail and the sealed envelope is with the rest of the mail on the living room table. I grumpily open it up and read it, moving the check aside without looking at it. I was hoping for $150 which is usually what they send us for Christmas. In the card my mom wrote - "Use the money for your immigration, and use the leftover money (1.3 exchange rate as of today) for gifts." I look at the check and burst into tears. It's for $1,750 U.S. My parents sent us a check that completely covered all the money I needed for my immigration. Did I say I burst into tears? What I actually meant was I was sobbing my eyes out. I can't believe how generous that was of them. I'm still astounded by the generosity of that gift. I can't believe they did that.
I tearfully tell Frolic we can afford to rent a car now so we call up the car rental company, get a car, and set off for Niagara Falls. We come through Customs, I sign a few papers, and that's it. "You're landed," the customs guy says. I ask him, "Can you say, 'Welcome to Canada'?" He smiles and says, "Welcome to Canada."
In a way it was an anticlimactic moment - part of me thought there should be bells and whistles, maybe a bunch of balloons released from the ceiling. At a minimum there should have been a blinking sign surrounded by lights and a line of chorus girls. But at least I got to hear the customs guy say, "Welcome to Canada," just like I'd read in all those stories posted on the Canadian Immigration Limbo support group.
Frolic hugged me and we left. We drove back to Toronto as quickly as possible because the office for SIN numbers (the Canadian equivalent of a Social Security Number - you can't work without one) closed at 4 PM. We squeaked in at 3:40 PM and I now have a little piece of paper that says I can work legally in Canada. For the first time in five years I felt like a normal, contributing member of society. Knowing that I can walk into anywhere and hand over my resume, that I don't have to scratch by on whatever under-the-table jobs I can find, is a great feeling.
So, there's my big news. I'm landed. My parents gave me the most amazing and thoughtful gift ever. Everything is pretty damn amazing at the moment.