News already!

Yes, updating two days in a row... pretty amazing, I know. Actually, I'm having problems sitting still from excitement. However, I've told a bunch of people about this now, so I'm starting to calm down a little.

I got a call from Al at Sukh Dhaliwal's office this afternoon. I was surprised to hear from him so soon, since I just talked to him yesterday, but, hey! I'm not going to complain! (It's not like anybody else is really good at getting/giving information quickly. Or, at all.) Kudos yet again to those wonderful people! It seems that he had a little chat with someone from "the Minister's office" (I'm assuming the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), and was finally able to get some information about our file! The interview that should have been done to determine the validity of our marriage has been waived - which means we satisfied them of our genuine marriage with the proof offered in the application and since. However, I had thought that's what David's March interview was; I've never heard of someone having two interviews unless there was a refusal and appeal in between, so I have no idea if there was a mistake made in our processing or what happened. Anyways, we don't have to worry about it since they've waived that second interview. Yay! I'm not sure if David could handle the stress of another one like the last one. It also looks like David's security/background check has been completed, which is usually one of the last steps in this process, and CIC seems to have all the information they need. The bring-forward date on our file is now November 29. That's a Sunday, so obviously we're not going to hear anything on that exact day, but I don't think it's unrealistic of us to expect to get some correspondence from CIC the first week of December.

Here's what I understand should happen next: Soon after our bring-forward date, Accra makes a *postive* decision, David gets a package in the mail from CIC-Accra with medical re-do forms, goes and gets his medicals done, and leaves the forms with the doctor, who sends them to a CIC office in Paris, France, either via CIC-Accra or directly (Not sure exactly how that works). Medical re-dos are said to get top priority at the processing facility in Paris, so hopefully within three or four weeks of receipt, David's medical information will be entered into the CIC database and an Immigration officer will access and assess them. Everything will be a go, and David will get a long-awaited email to bring his passport and receive his visa on any Monday after the letter is received. He will then have to wait at the High Commission all day (6 to 8 hours seems to be the recent processing times from what I've heard) to receive his traveling documents (I think I've seen a list of what all this includes, but can't think of everything off the top of my head) and a visa-stamped passport. I also forget how long the visa is good for; either three months or six months from the date he receives it. From there, he's free to come to Canada, provided he arrives before his visa expires (trust me, he'll be here ASAP). He will have to go through Customs and a landing interview with Immigration upon arriving in Canada, but I don't think there will be anything to cause problems in the landing interview unless he suddenly forgets his name, age, wife's name, the country she lives in... things like that. In which case, I think they'll probably stick him on the next plane back to Ghana. Hehe. And no, that would not be funny or ironic in the least. Please do not laugh if such a thing happens.

Now, IF everything goes like this (minus the amnesia and being sent back to Ghana), it's very possible that I could leave behind this "single married" status by late January/early February. I hate to get too excited because this whole process has been so unpredictable and delayed. But, yes, I am just a little excited. Having heard SOMETHING after eight months of silence from CIC is incredible. So here's us eagerly waiting for the next three weeks, just IN CASE there isn't a delay and we get something from CIC.