Well, Tiana and I are official permanent residents of Canada. Several weeks ago we got notice that Immigration was ready to put our VISA in our passports. So we mailed (with much nervousness) our VISA to Canadian Immigration. It had to be in a certain sized envelope with specific things included. The process was so specific and yet even though they were sent certified, the immigration website said that they are not responsible for lost or stolen passports. Doesn't that just instill confidence. I was sooooo happy to see them come back in the mail about 2 weeks later. The VISA's were in the passports but in order to get the paperwork completed we had to see an immigration agent. Now there were 2 ways to do that, make an appointment in Ottawa or cross a border. We called many times to make an appointment and got a message saying that the call queue was so long we couldn't even get put into the queue. Wil finally got through once only to be told it would take months to get an appointment, so we decided to cross the border. Wil took the day off yesterday and we headed to New York. We stopped on the Canadian side, went in asked if we could see immigrations and were told no, you have to cross the border. So we drove over the 1000 Islands bridge, crossed into New York and then made a quick U-turn and headed back to Canada. Stopped at the Canadian border and went into see Immigration. We ended up seeing the same guy who told Wil we had to cross the border...how efficient is that? Anyways, he asked us a couple questions and filled out our paperwork and stapled it into our passports. Our cards will come in the mail in 4-8 weeks. So we started the process the end of December, finally got all paperwork mailed in the beginning of March and spent about $2000 and finally it is done..YAY! Check one thing off the list.
So then we drove to Kingston and went to Service Canada to apply for Ontario Health Insurance. We were able to apply and it will be effective the beginning of November. YAY! Check #2 item off the list.
While we were at Service Ontario, Wil asked if they had forms to apply for social insurance numbers. Social Insurance numbers are similar to Social Security Numbers, except it is really only for work purposes and a couple of other things. They are not tied to credit ratings or anything else. Anyways, they said that to get the forms we would have to go to another government office or we could get them on line for $10. So we made one more stop.
We went in to get forms and the lady said, "well there aren't forms, you just come in with birth certificates (which I had for immigration) and we get you signed up. So we waited and saw a lady and she filled everything out in her computer and now Tiana and I have Social Insurance Numbers. YAY! Check #3 off the list.
It sure is nice to have all of this stuff taken care of, little by little things are getting checked off the list.
Today, the girls are going to a water park with the youth center so I have a little extra time to myself. I have a bunch of running to do and I am going to try to unpack a couple more boxes. My goal is to be super productive today...I will let you know how that goes.
I forced the girls to go check out a youth group for one of the churches we attended. It was at the youth pastors house. They went and played sports for an hour and then went swimming at his house. They said they had fun and they met a couple more people that go to their school. It is for the Baptist Church in town. I like it alot, very old fashioned, warm, welcoming and a gorgeous old building. The youth group meets year round so that is a huge bonus. I don't think the girls are sold on it but the youth pastor sure is trying hard. He even called to invite us to a bonfire and family camping. So we will see how it goes the next couple weeks. We will definitely go visit again on Sunday.
I also found out this week that I am going to have visitors soon. A close friend from Colorado is going to visit over Canadian Thanksgiving in October and then my sister and brother-in-law are coming later that month. In the course of my life, people have always come to visit my family but I don't remember anyone coming just to visit me...don't I feel special! But then again, now the pressure of entertaining falls on me...:)
Well I need to go get ready to drop the girls off. Talk to you soon. Miss you all.
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