Finally a Resolution!

When Douglas applied for a Visitor Visa to come home to visit us, I received an email a week later from Guat City saying that it was denied due to the Security Clearances being needed first.  Well, that is the last frontier that we are waiting for until he receives his Permanent Resident Status.  The only problem is that the security clearances are out of our hands as the cogs work very slowly up here in Canada to process said clearances.

The local police station took 5 weeks to process after numerous visits/calls to the station.  The RCMP check in Ottawa took a total of 7 months to process and the last one in Calgary  is on it's 9th week now.  You see a clearance must be obtained from every place that he lived in Canada.  After this last clearance is done only one more remains and that will take approximately 6 months to process.  So, we will not be able to send the completed police clearances down to the Immigration department in Guat City until approximately August 2011.

 I have a templated email that I have been mailing to the Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenney, almost every day for the past two years.  In that email I explain the situation, the ages of our children and politely ask for a 10 minute meeting with him in the future to discuss our options.  I have NEVER heard even a templated response from his office in either Calgary or Ottawa.

When I received the email of decline, I wrote back a VERY long email once again explaining our situation. I was SHOCKED that I received an email of response a day later explaining that in light of the situation, they were looking at "options for our family and would be in touch on Monday".  That email arrived on the Thursday.  On the Monday (& it was in the morning!), I received the JOYFUL email that explained that the Immigration Manager had issued a SPECIAL PERMIT for my husband to return home while they continued to process his paperwork!! I cannot begin to express how excited I was.  I couldn't pick up the phone fast enough to tell him the great news.

A few days later and he was exciteadly enroute to pick up his permit when he had his little "fender bender" (see earlier post).  He still managed to pick up the wonderful permit!

He is now in the midst of packing up his life down there - he has quite a bit to sell.  Our house is currently on the market for sale as we finished the renovations (FINALLY!!!) in December.

There was absolutely no sense in him ever being processed for his PR status externally, and issuing this permit while they have not completed his status only proves my point - but that is the way our hopeless Canadian Immigration department is run.

We all sleep better at night knowing that he will soon be back up here with us again in time for Avalon's next birthday and Trinity's Grade 8 graduation!  It will be interesting to see how he assimilates back into the Canadian way of life and also interesting to see how Tequila (his little chihuahua) & Thumbelina (our little chug) get along together - I don't have a good feeling about that. 

Snow Storm - YAY!

 We had a snow storm - it was forcasted to be a real doozy! It wasn't quite as bad as we though it was going to be - about 25 cm of snow, squalls at time and the roads were slushy and slick - but nothing we are not used to in Canada.  Our winters seem to be getting shorter and milder.  It was nice to have a "snow day" - all the kids's schools were closed as well at the University that I work at - so that was a nice mid week break!

He Described it as a "Fender Bender"

This is what happens when you TRY to email your wife and drive at the same time!

 

So, the car will be out of commission for a few days! On the bright side, the body shop/mechanic bill is 70% less than what it would have been up here in Canada.

Continental Airlines Customer Service

When Trinity was flying from San Salvador, El Salvador to Houston, Texas, we were concerned that she would not catch her connecting flight to Los Angeles on time - you see she had only 1 hr and 8 mins to deplane, find the baggage terminal, collect her bags and then make her way to the next airline.  There is a monorail at Houston, but it is a very big airport, and with her being alone and only just turning thirteen, we had some concerns.

She handled it like a pro though and was able to find her baggage and connecting flight with no problem - she made it there within 5 mins to spare.

I was concerned that I had not heard from her when she was in Houston, so I phoned the only Continental number I could find - it was a cargo bay not even in the Airport.  A lovely woman by the name of Jocelyn helped us immensely, as she got in touch with the main Terminal, confirmed she had just made it to her plane in time & even sent a message to the flight staff in LA that gave her the message as soon as she arrived in LA.  The message was "Turn on your iPhone". ha ha  Thanks for the exceptional service Continental!