My permanent residency experience!

Hello Guys,

Today, I'm very happy to become landed Canadian permanent resident. Many of you are still in progress and many of you are thinking for applying the residency. I just decided to share my wonderful (though little painful and impatient) experience of Canadian residency. As you would have read earlier, I came to Canada as an international student with my husband as a visitor. When we entered Canada, he applied for his work permit which was issued in 10 days. Surprising, but true. All our relatives said, "Ohh, you guys are so lucky..", well, nobody knew the pain after getting that work permit. However, you guys know my story, so..moving ahead..my husband came to Edmonton, Alberta and got job in 2 weeks. He applied for Alberta Nomination. Generally it takes around a month to get it, but because we were so much jinxed as we got his work permit so ahead of time, our nomination was delayed by 3 months. They interviewed my husband 3 times because I was studying in Ottawa and they wanted to know his intentions. However, when I provided the signed copy of my renting lease in Edmonton, they issued our nomination in the second week of March, 2013. We had applied it in first week of December, 2012.

As soon as we got our nomination, we had already prepared for our PR application - like our police certificates and all, and as we received the nomination in the mail, the same day we sent them the package. It was received to CIO-Sydney on 28th March 2013 and then starts our process. After waiting for 2 months, we got our acknowledgement of receipt and our file number in May, 2013. After a week, we got medical request. We drove 10 hours to Saskatoon to do our medicals asap as there were no appointments available in Alberta. Our medical reached CIO-Sydney in about 2 weeks but our ECAS was updated in first week of July. 

Then my husband was transferred for a project in Fort Mcmurray and this made our life difficult. We were relaxed before that, but as he moved there he was pretty sick, allergic to something we don't know. His employers thought that he isn't committed to his work and were bullying him. Even though he was on an open work permit, he couldn't risk to leave his job when PR is in process and that contributed a lot to make this pleasing process - a painful process. I'm sure many of our current permanent residents would have a same story to share. We all think - "Ohh see..he is a PR...he is damn lucky..he has all comforts..", but no one really knows the physical and mental stress one goes into. Anytime, when we get an ECAS update such as "Your application is in process on August, 2013" or any email from CPP-Ottawa, such "Pay RPRF"...it was a happy and merry day for us - a day full of hope, a day where we used to think our worries will soon end.

I made many friends at Canada visa forum who shared their pains, their worries and their experiences. Even if circumstances were different, the pain and that feeling was same. We all were feeling the same feelings. Some haven't met their spouses for like 3 years, some didn't visit their homeland for like 8 years...the pain and impatience for that was just same. We cannot measure that and we cannot compare that. Any how, in the meantime, we all ordered our GCMS notes and shared the information, just to see that where we were and if we all were on the same track. If someone's behind, that would that person a hope and idea about how the process is running.

Well, our life was more painful and full of shock when we got our GCMS notes in November, 2013. Everybody in our group were getting their passport request, or that miracle letter "Ready for Visa Letter" but on our immigration notes, the due date was 30 Jan 2014. We were sad and I cried that day because our process was seemingly delayed for another 3 months and it was our fault - I had send them the letter asking them when to hear for any decision as we are going on a Christmas vacation. Whoever read our email probably thought that we want to delay our process. I was so shattered. Everybody in the forum were getting their emails to send passports, and I was feeling that I'm ditched (by my own mistake). 

I was depressed and wanted answers. I wanted to know why God is giving us such a hard time, why my application is extended and my husband who is stressed and not well. My married life was going in trouble. I couldn't even sit with my husband and speak with him about anything. He was all quiet and depressed. I started to read Bhagwad Gita - It's an Indian spiritual book that gives you the spiritual answers and there it had a very nice quote:

"When a man thinks about something, he desires for that. When he desires, he gets impatient. When he gets impatient, he gets angry. And when he gets angry, that's his end. He is going towards destruction". 

It seemed I got my answers and I just wrote an email asking CPP-Ottawa that why is my file delayed when it's in process for so long. I received a standard reply on Thursday, 5 December 2013 and on Monday, December 9th, 2013 at 4.45 AM when I checked my ECAS (I wake up early to got to work, just decided to check it), "A decision has been made on your file. An officer will contact you regarding this." I shouted so loudly, that my husband got scared..yeah man, he thought I'm still in my sleepy state. We checked our email, there was NO email from CPP-Ottawa. So, we emailed them and in a couple of hours, we in fact got 2 emails - one from officer and one a generic one - asking us to send our passports. Boom!!! 9th December was the bestest (I know bestest isn't any word..but for me--it is) day of my life. So, now we decided to come back from vacation and send our passports to CPP-Ottawa on Jan 5, 2014.

As we came from our vacation, same day we sent our passports to CPP-Ottawa. It reached there in about 2 days. After 15 days, we got our passport stamped with PR Visa and our COPR (confirmation of permanent resident). I waited for my husband to come back from Fort Mcmurray and we went to border to do our landing.

Landing experience

Landing experience was quite normal. We got a speeding ticket on our way to Caraway Border. Never mind, all is well that ends well. We went to the US border and told US officer that we are here for taking a U-Turn to Canada. He asked why and we said for our landing He was confused but allowed us to take a U-turn. We had US visa and so, he didn't gave us any yellow/pink sticker. We took U- turn and told CBSA officer that we are here for landing. He asked us why didn't we make any appointment.We said because appointment waiting time was like 2-3 months.

He said that it depends on the rush if we can do your landing. Ha! there was no rush. There were 4-5 people ahead of us. He took our COPR, passport and old work permits and asked us to wait. We waited for like 1.5 hours and then he called our name. We went and he said, "Now you are permanent resident of Canada. You will receive your PR card by mail". We thanked him and left from there.

And then we Partied!!!! Hope my experience is helpful to you!!!

Best of luck with your PR application!!

Shruti