I checked my e-cas as usual on Monday and after months of stating "In Process" it has changed!!!!!!!!!

It now says" DECISION MADE", but of course it doesn't say what that decision is.

Now I have to wait for any letter sent (if they have sent it yet) to get all the way to Vancouver to my lawyer before I get to know what the answer is.It takes about a week for the letter to arrive after posting.

I am now in a highly anxious state.

On the one hand relieved because this whole thing is drawing to a close (one way or the other) but on the other what if the decision is a rejection letter. After so much time, energy and expectation over the last 2 years it will be difficult to accept.

Part of me says I should stop worrying. The meds were fine, police checks fine so what can they possible object to, but on the other hand until they yes, they could still say NO!

Anyway one way or another I will know soon.

Our police checks arrived yesterday!! Less than a month from sending them.

I mailed them special delivery today - so they should have them by 1:pm tommorow.

Shouldn't be too long now.

I am amusing myself by looking at the store flyers and on line shops in Canada to see what we want to buy to set up house when we finally get over there.

Its quite strange. If I were to start from the begining again in Britain I would know exactly where to look for the best value on electricals, appliances etc, but it's fairly daunting trying to compare the different Canadian sites like for like.

I am trying to familiarise myself now so that it won't be such a big deal when we have to do it for real.

For now back to the waiting.

We had our medicals at Slough yesterday.

Slough is a bit of a jaunt from Bournemouth but the only one closer is Winchester and they only seem to do the immigration medicals on a Tuesday and then not all Tuesdays. The earliest they could fit us in was 19 November.

Phoned around and enquired at Oxford. They do the whole thing in house: medical exam, bloods and x-rays, but the receptionist was adamant that I would have to undergo a cervical smear test!!!

I told her that my own Doc was willing to supply a letter stating that I was up to date with them and that my last test was negative but she was adamant!

So I phoned Slough. Lovely receptionist. Explained everything very clearly. Was as horrified as me about the smear test and said I would most certainly not need one. So Slough It was.

Nice friendly place just one Doc and the receptionist.

The practice is in an ordinary house and the waiting room is a sitting room complete with family photos. There were a couple of newspapers and lots of magazines to pass the time.

We had our appointments at 11:am and They had booked us chest x-rays at the local Nuffield hospital for 2:30pm.

As the last of us was being seen the receptionist came through and said that as we all seemed to fit and well and the exams were not taking long she would phone and bring our appointments forward.

So all told complete meds, bloods and x-rays for four of us done and dusted by 1:30pm.

So that is the last thing done. Just got to wait for police checks to come back and mail them to CHC London and then it's back to the waiting.

At last. Just 1 week after finaly getting our AOR, we have our requests for updated police clearance and to take our medicals.

Since our nomination at the end of May these last 4 months have seemed the longest part of the whole process.

But now at last we can move forward. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

It is now over 10 weeks since my application was sent back (missing form ensconced within) to CHC London.

Getting somewhat impatient I decided to email my lawyer in Vancouver to ask if they think an AOR isn't a little overdue.

Or are we sure that they have actually received my application.

This morning I am greeted (upon my ritual scanning of my emails) by a letter containing my AOR - dated 3/8/2006 - 9 weeks ago!!!!!

Apparently it was wrongly addressed by CHC London and has spent all this time floating around the Canadian Postal system.

My concern now is that there is either, a rejection letter (ever the optimist) a request to go for medicals or even worse an interview date (that we might have missed) also floating about the Canadian postal system. 

At least we have an AOR and one way or another we should have some news soon.

So I am grateful for small mercies and will try to patiently await further developments.

Thats it I'm officially deppressed now!

CHC London have had my application on their desks (for the second time) since 24 July 2006 and not a peep out of them. No AOR, nothing.

Thats about 7 weeks!

I know that lots of people wait a couple of months for an AOR, but on the PNP everyone seems to be moving really fast. EXCEPT me

I am checking my emails at a rate that will have me diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder any day now.

And the longer I hear nothing the more I think that it will be a negative response. So much for no news is good news.

My rant is over, it's Monday today so I have a whole week of checking emails ahead of me. Friday is a particularly deppressing day, because if once again I have heard nothing then there is no possibility of news until after the weekend.

While I am waiting for an AOR from CHC London (which hopefully I will get by the end of the month) I thought I should say a little about how we got to this point.

We are:

me Penny 43

Husband Shane 42

Son James 22

Son Luke 19

Up until the age of 40 neither Shane or myself even owned a passport.

The boys had visited Spain and France respectively with their schools, but we hadn't been further accross the water than the Isle of Wight.

In 2002 my best friend having got her visa moved to Eastern Ontario.

In February 2003 we took the boys and got on a big plane at Heathrow to go and visit for 3 weeks.

We stayed for 3 days in Toronto and then got our hire car (big 4x4 for the snowy roads) and headed east.

My friend has a 30 acre horse farm with a (then) 3 year old house.

All of this she bought for £125,000

We had a great time ,visited a frosty Niagara falls, skated on the Riddeau canal in Ottawa and marvelled at the Ice sculptures in the park. Luke tried his hand at snow boarding.

We also had the stange experience of an ice storm. it comes down like hail and covers everything in what looks like a glass casing. 

In May 2004 we visited again. Couldn't really afford to but Canadian affair had flights for £150 return so could't really afford not to!

This time James stayed home and we took Luke and also our niece Emma (they are similar in age).

We felt a lot more at home on this trip and as the weather was warm we did a lot more too.

At this point we talked about what a great place Canada was and the boys would actually be able to own their own home and that kind of stuff.  We didn't think about it seriously though as we had my disabled mother living with us and didn't think we would be in a position to look at it for real.

Then in December 2004 my mother became ill with heart failure. This was a real shock as although she was disabled through artheritis she was healthy in every other respect. To cut a long story short she never got to leave hospital and died after 6 weeks. It was her kidneys that gave up in the end. I think all the years of taking multiple pills to counter the arthritis must have taken their toll. She was 72.

By February 2005 we started to think about what we would do with the house (we had lived upstairs and mum down) before.

It gradually dwned on us that not only could we move house if we wanted to but actually we could go wherever we wanted to.

Thats when the idea of moving to Canada materialised in earnest.

A new problem then appeared. James was 21 and would turn 22 in September at that point he would no longer be classed as a dependent and could not be included on our visa.

Talked to an immigration lawyer and decided that the New Brunswick business PNP would suit us but one snag, could we do it before James turned 22.

He said sure. If we don't we will submit to federal gov first and NB can play catch up. No Problem.

We submit initial forms - go to Fredericton NB for interview. Whole family happy with the place.

On our return home my lawyer is sending emails saying it would be better for James to be in full time education. No I replied. He has a good job doesn't want to go to school.

In the end I phone lawyer who has to admit that if James doesn't go back into F/T education he cannot be included on visa!!!!!

All his talk of submitting to feds first was just made up from the top of his head. ( so much for using a lawyer at great expense because they are the experts and know what they are doing)!!

So we had a choice. After visiting NB and getting excited about the whole thing we did not want to give up now.

James looked at the prospectus and decided to enroll at Bournemouth University on a business Management degree.

He started college on the day he turned 22. Talk about cutting it fine.

This could still be picked out by a very picky visa officer as the wording for dependents is that they "should be in f/t ed since before turning 22".

So it has cost us far more than anticipated given that we are now supprting him financially as a poor student insted of picking up £40 a week in houskeeping from him.

And now we are nearing the end of the visa trail. One way or another we should know in the next few weeks or months.

The next installment of this blog should be when I hear something from CHC London. Given their track record it could be a long wait so I won't hold my breath.

I have never done this before and am not so good with my computer so I hope it works alright.

A bit about where we are now.

We are on a New Brunswick business visa through their PNP.

Sent in business evaluation form May 2005

Interviewd in Fredericton NB July 2005

Submitted Application and business plan to NB November 2005

Nominated May 2006

File sent to London (by NB) CHC June 2006

File sent back from London CHC July 2006 (1 document missing)

File sent to London CHC again!! middle July 2006

Now waiting

So it has taken just over a year to get to this point and should in theory be quite quick from now on, but this seems to be the longest few weeks of the whole process.

When NB nominated and sent our file to London CHC I was counting on about 4 weeks to AOR then with postage to my lawyer in Canada maybe six. But to find six weeks later not an AOR but "we returned your application because it is incomplete" has put us back about 8 weeks I think. 

Never mind these things happen and I am sure there will be more fun and games along the way.