Well, for anybody following me on Facebook, it's become apparent that I'm *hopefully* off to visit David in less than two weeks. For the rest of you, I'm *hopefully* off to visit David in less than two weeks. Not everything is completely settled yet, we're still trying to get my plane ticket figured out, but so far, everything seems to be a go. With my job and our current financial situation, two weeks is all that can be spared, but there's never a time that will be long enough except forever, so we're happy with what we do get.
We don't have much planned for while I'm there, mostly just hanging out and BEING together. Listening to each other breathe and spending a lot of time just sitting and looking at each other. Apart from missing my husband, I also miss Ghana, specifically Accra, like crazy, so I'm planning on getting out and soaking up as much of the culture, people, food, atmosphere, sounds, and smells as possible. Visiting old haunts, wandering streets, going to the beach (I miss the ocean SO bad), eating... all that kind of good stuff. I'm definitely looking forward to the food. Well, I guess I can't start mentioning all the things I'm looking forward to because it's a list that would go on for a very long time. David was frantically trying to plan and renovate and do all kinds of crazy stuff for when I was there, but I told him that I just wanted to come home and relax and act like we were never apart and I'm never going to have to leave. I, honestly, just need a break; a break from all the responsibility and worrying. I'm preparing my brain so that I can just not think about all this stuff for the two weeks I'm with David. I'm not the type that does that very well, so I'm hoping this goes better than anticipated.
We are hoping to take lots of pictures, especially of us together, since that's something that we don't have much of from when I was living over there before.
We are planning on making at least one visit to the Canadian High Commission while I'm in Ghana to drop of proof of my visit and hopefully discuss our application with someone in the visa office. I'm going to talk to the MP's office for my constituency later this week and see if they can get us an appointment. But other than that, I'd rather not spend a whole lot of time thinking about this immigrating thing. Thinking about it doesn't seem to help speed things along.
Of course, there will be more to talk about once I'm actually in Ghana and have seen David (it's been 15 and a half months since we were last together in person). He has high-speed internet in the house, so I'll be around checking email and Facebook. And if I feel like writing, I might stick something up here, or it might end up just waiting until I get back.
I just want to put a plug in here for the people at Golden Rule Travel. We had hoped to get a cheap ticket from a friend of David's who works for a travel agency in Ghana (you'd think we would have learned our lesson last time, but...), but things were just not working out with him, so I turned to Golden Rule, who has done tickets for me before. As always, they respond as if they've just been sitting around waiting for me to call them. Always so polite, helpful, friendly... just incredible customer service. I haven't yet seen an itinerary or the price quote, but I feel more peaceful right after contacting them (even at the last minute), than I have in the last 3 weeks that we've been duking things out with this travel agent in Ghana. I know that, even though we might pay a little more (a little more than what David's buddy had told us, not a little more than your average online fares. I have found in the past that Golden Rule is consistently $200-$400 less than the cheapest fare I can find in any online search engine), my flight booking and travel experience will be completely carefree. I'm looking forward to a good trip!
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Proactive Waiting
I received the CAIPS notes on our file last week, so at least now we know what the holdup on our file is. The concern the immigration officer had following David's interview in March was concerning his relationship with the mother of his two children. The officer, for some unfounded reason, is needing to be convinced that David and this woman are no longer together. You would think that it would be pretty obvious from the information we submitted with the application originally (and the little fact that he's MARRIED to somebody else), but apparently not. So we've been busy this last week getting notarized documents together to submit against this ridiculous accusation. You wouldn't think we'd have to spell it out, but apparently...
The last entry in the case notes was from the middle of May; the medicals exams David and the kids were required to have at the beginning of this process were analysed and the results entered into the file record. I would assume that's a good sign, meaning that they've decided to move on with the application. However, those medicals are only good for a year, so they expired in June and David will have to redo his before he can receive his visa. Lovely.
The good news from the notes - the immigration officer seems to be convinced of our genuine relationship, which is half the battle with this particular office. I'm breathing a light sigh of relief from this, but still half bracing myself for a refusal on this point, just in case they change their mind and can't find anything else to refuse us for.
David is planning on going to the visa office on Monday to submit the additional documents and ask for permission to redo his medical now instead of waiting until they request it (the exam results get sent to a CIC office in France for... something. I'm not sure what that office does with them, but it takes approximately four months for the results to show up in the system so that the Accra office can access them). Hopefully I'll have some more news to post once he's been to the visa office.
This article was published earlier this week in the Toronto Star; it's good to see some attention drawn to the issues in Immigration, but depressing to see the official numbers for rejections. Our file is being handled by the Accra foreign visa office (46% rejection rate according to Minister Chow).
The last entry in the case notes was from the middle of May; the medicals exams David and the kids were required to have at the beginning of this process were analysed and the results entered into the file record. I would assume that's a good sign, meaning that they've decided to move on with the application. However, those medicals are only good for a year, so they expired in June and David will have to redo his before he can receive his visa. Lovely.
The good news from the notes - the immigration officer seems to be convinced of our genuine relationship, which is half the battle with this particular office. I'm breathing a light sigh of relief from this, but still half bracing myself for a refusal on this point, just in case they change their mind and can't find anything else to refuse us for.
David is planning on going to the visa office on Monday to submit the additional documents and ask for permission to redo his medical now instead of waiting until they request it (the exam results get sent to a CIC office in France for... something. I'm not sure what that office does with them, but it takes approximately four months for the results to show up in the system so that the Accra office can access them). Hopefully I'll have some more news to post once he's been to the visa office.
This article was published earlier this week in the Toronto Star; it's good to see some attention drawn to the issues in Immigration, but depressing to see the official numbers for rejections. Our file is being handled by the Accra foreign visa office (46% rejection rate according to Minister Chow).
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