Sunday, June 3, 2012

To Canada right?

     

Canada has sometimes been accused to be a bit lax with their immigrant screening in the past.

Maybe I can contribute to eliminate that prejudgment, because we have been going through the screening process. And let me add it should qualify to receive clearing for the highest federal office.

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I will spare you to read about every little item on the list, but just mention that our stack of papers was ¾ of an inch thick. Just to give you one example, we had to go collect all employment data with wages we had earned from the age of 18. In our case that was a span of more than 30 years of working and schooling. Even with the best memory that is not any easy task. And being at it one might just hope that the company one worked for 25 years earlier is still in business. If not – bad luck. Every document had to be notarized and translated by an authorized translation agency.

One other requirement: Criminal background check from every country of previous residence.

For “normal” citizens, and I am thinking of normal as not being any Einstein, this is a hard task to achieve. We were extremely busy for 4 weeks. Then $6000.00 changed hands to our immigration consultant who was the one compiling all the papers to make some sense in our application. He blessed the entire book with his friendly letter and a stamp with his name. He did also sent it off to the Canadian High Commission in London, UK which is in charge for Scandinavia. After 5 months we got a friendly invitation to show up at a doctors office in Oslo. I shall forego the story of that examination here, maybe I will post it some time later, but after 2.5hrs at Dr. Frankenstein we were standing outside on the curb, 600Dollars poorer looking at each other and just couldn’t believe what we just had gone through.

But the doctor’s visit was the last official hurdle before we could leave Norway, and they never call in for the health check unless the application is approved.

So being back at home we got busy again. The house and two vehicles and our travel trailer needed to be sold. Our possessions needed to be gone through for what we wanted to take with us and what we would leave behind. We ended with a wooden box (Yes I made that myself) of 7 cubic meter (247cubic feet). It was mounted on a pallet and a truck brought it to the Oslo Harbour where it was loaded onto a freighter and shipped to Vancouver BC. It took 6 weeks before it arrived in Canada.

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Our realtor sold the house I had built within 2 weeks. We moved into our travel trailer and to the local RV-Park.

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Bea’s Toyota went like a hot cake and was already sold. The last day arrived and I drove the travel trailer to the buyer in the morning and dropped off my big old Suburban in the afternoon the same day. One minute after I received the money for the truck, friends drove us to the airport. It was incredible timing. We DSC_0044-mihad booked a one-way flight to London, UK from where we would take a charter flight to Calgary the next day. It was just days before the Queen celebrated her 50th anniversary. The city was full of excitement and preparations for the big party. I was 50 years old as well. 1952 was a good year for the Queen and me.

All that seems like it happened yesterday, but hey it’s been ten years!

And today, 10 years after, the Queen has just celebrated her 60th anniversary, and we have been 10 years in one of the British Commonwealth Countries – Canada!

10 comments:

  1. what a great read...who knew it would be so much work to cross the continent..but we're glad you did :) hoping to see you folks this summer...

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  2. Congratulations on ten years in Canada. It's hard for parents when their children move so far away - so we moved far away from our child instead. lol

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  3. that was quite the story and pretty darn expensive too!..congrats on being here for ten years!!!

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  4. WOW! I loved the story. I love the memories. Today I wrote a blog about where I was ten years ago during the festivities of the Golden Jubilee ... to be posted at another time. It's amazing how current events can jog the memory for days past.

    Great story. I love to know about people. I'll be anxious to know about the rest of the story.

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  5. Wonderful story and congratulations on your 10 year Canadian anniversary. I hope you have forgotten all about Dr. Frankenstein by now!!

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  6. Very interesting and enlightening story. It certainly makes us feel good about being here in Oregon most all of my 66 years. Always enjoyed our visits to Canada, and have always enjoyed the Canadians we have met here in the U.S. It sure is nice to have good neighbors. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Wow. That's determination. We (Canadians as well as Americans) sometimes need to pinch ourselves and be thankful of just where we born.
    My wife and I have had the good fortune to get shipped off to Europe (for a time), but with the exception of a bit of running around (like to the Dutch Consulate in Toronto with some notarized documents for the first part of the stay) all aspects of the undertaking have been "taken care of", so to speak by consultants, relocation agencies or what have you. And we know full well that it costs the company €4000 every year to renew our Residence Permits. (Eek!) Thankfully we don't pay that shot.
    I think the only thing we had to pony up the dough for was my Austrian driver's license. Not that that was a big deal at around €55, but since I HAD to have a Residence Permit which then meant that I HAD to have my license changed over, I didn't understand the inconsistency.

    Then again, the relocation company who "approves" these kinds of things is in Texas.
    Try to figure that one out.
    The Austrian Driver's license NEVER EXPIRES by the way. Not sure how that works when we move back home. I guess I'll find out.


    Oh, and the thing that made me stop and take a closer look? The Chevy Suburban!
    Norway + Suburban = Huh?

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  8. A very interesting story of how you came to be Canadians, Thanks for sharing.

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  9. You both had everything figured out down to the minute. What a story!

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  10. You are so correct even for me as a Canadian and being Lolita's sponsor, lot's and lot's of paperwork with physicals. Hope she does't get a DR Frankenstein or we may scare her off. (LOL) We have been Married 27 years with three kids and CIC still wants lot's of proof of our relationship, family pictures etc.. Congrats on 10 years.

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