The Joys of Governmental Burocracy
Yes, it has been a while!
I know it's been too long since my last entry. I have no excuse other than laziness and the lack of inclination to write! There have been a lot of things on my mind of late, and the fact is the news says simply not me.
So I will try to catch up a little bit. One of the things that has weighed heavily on my mind of late is that I needed to renew my permanent resident card before the end of year. I tried to start the process in October - WAY ahead of schedule. The CIC, Canada's Immigration and Naturalization Service, has a complex website and encourages you to use it to renew the permanent resident card. I'm sorry I tried to!
The first thing they do is charge your credit card the $50 necessary to process a new card. All well and good. But after several pages into the process, it locked up on me and I couldn't go any further. Backing out of the web page I was stuck on, I discovered a phone number to call in case of difficulty. And I did so.
After several minutes of "troubleshooting" with the woman on the other end of the line, she finally asked me if by chance I might be using a Macintosh computer. I said yes, I am. "Oh!" she replied, "our system doesn't work with the Macintosh. Sorry!"
In her defense, she did recognize that this was a stupid state of affairs and promised that she would refund their money taken from my credit card. She then referred me to some other webpages, but by that time I was done with trying to do this electronically. I wanted to deal with human beings!
Put off by the first attempt to renew my Permanent Resident card, I put off making the attempt for a couple of weeks. Eventually I went back to the website looking for a phone number and a location close to Woodstock that I could visit in person. I found that the closest location was in Hamilton about 45 minutes away. But there was no phone number that I could call. There was a fax number listed, but I have no fax machine. So I thought to myself, "Self, just drive over there and see what you can find out!" And that is what I did.
Taking along as much supporting documentation as I could think of, I drove to Hamilton and located the CIC office in a public building downtown. I was fortunate in running into a lady who was leaving the for-pay parking lot across the street. She had almost 2 hours left on her parking permit, and she offered to give it to me. I gratefully accepted, Although knowing how the government works, I was sure that I would be more time than two hours!
I went into the building's main entrance and walked all over the place on my gimpy knee. I wished I had brought my cane! Eventually I asked someone at the main desk where the CIC office was and he explained that it was outside around the corner. So, I went outside around the corner. There I discovered a small, poorly marked door with a buzzer next to it. You had to push the buzzer and be admitted by a person on the inside. For a moment there, I thought it was a speakeasy! "If Louie sent you, you can walk right in!"
As it turns out, the magic word in answer to the question "Do you have an appointment?" Is "Yes!" If you answer in this fashion, the door buzzes and you can walk right in. Not being able to lie so blatantly in order to gain entrance, I waited until another party approached the door, buzzed and responded as required. At that point I simply follow the group in.
After this group had been dealt with by the harridan-- errrr, lady -- behind the glass window, I approached with trepidation.
"You have an appointment?"
"No," I said with a smile, "but can I make one?"
"No! You have to call the number listed on the door!" She said sternly and pointing stiffly to the exit .
"On the door, you say?" I responded innocently. "It's too bad that number isn't listed on your website, because apparently I've had to drive here all the way from Woodstock to learn that there is such a number! It might be a customer-friendly thing to do to list that number on your website!" I explained in a friendly manner.
"Talk to your MP!" was all she could bring herself to say.
"I'm sure he'll get right on it!" I said through my clenched teeth, still trying to effect a smile.
I went out to get the number and add it to my contacts. I thought I would call it immediately and did so from the lobby of the main building. It was much quieter in there than on the street. The person I talked to from the CIC at this number was friendly but quite adamant that there was no way that I could make an appointment to talk to someone about renewing my permanent resident card. I needed to either do it online - and here, of course, I explained that that was impossible because I have a Macintosh computer and their lovely online system is not compatible with this wonderful device - or I needed to get the paperwork, fill it out and send it in to the appropriate office.
This experience has taught me several things about government bureaucracy. At least as far as the CIC is concerned, they do not want to deal with you in person unless THEY want to deal with you in person! If you are looking for help in filling out the forms, gathering up all the information necessary to convince them that they should grant you a new permanent resident card, You are apparently out of luck.
Interestingly enough, there is a section in the forms that you have to sign off saying that you do not require assistance from them to do this. I wonder what would happen if I said I did need help?
I guess I was laboring under the misapprehension that renewing my permanent resident card would be only slightly more complicated than renewing a drivers license. I thought, bring the old license/resident card, new photographs, the $50 fee and Bam! You're finished, you'll get your card in two weeks or less. That would be way too easy!
As it turns out they seem to be very concerned that you have spent a sufficient amount of time within Canada in order to get a renewed card. They want to know when you were outside of the country, for how long, and they want you to add all this up and give them a total number of days you have been ex patria. They want to know this for the last five years! How in hell was I supposed to know that?
As it turns out I have kept pretty good records on when I have left Canada and returned. I was hoping that my calendar, which I was using to track this information, would give me the details fairly painlessly. As it turns out the calendar was only valid for the last three years, Apple did not keeping a full five years of records for me. And so I turned to this blog, which has also been fairly accurate - but not always so! - In tracking my movements in and out of Canada.
I also relied on email records and the metadata in photographs I took to calculate when I was out of the country and where. Using all of these methods and what little brains I have left, I was able to come up with a fairly accurate list of dates I was out of Canada. There were really only two episodes in which I had to guess and in both cases I guessed generously just in case!
This research took me the better part of the day, believe it or not, and I was very stressed out about it. Other documentation required for this renewal includes drivers licenses, passports (print copies of every page in your passport, please!) and a couple of years of Canada Revenue Agency assessments. Fortunately I had all of this. Other documentation that they suggested I use, I did not. I'm just hoping that what I provided them will suffice.
Having gathered all this material together and placed it in an envelope,-went to the bank to make the payment again to the CIC of $50. The receipt for this I placed in the envelope as well, took it to the UPS store and sent it to Sydney, Nova Scotia, where I trust it will be treated properly and processed in a timely fashion! :-)
I see from the tracking number that it arrived there today, as it should have, one day after it was sent. So now it is up to the CIC and I pray that all goes well. I'm not a religious man, but your prayers would be welcome too!l
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.