Graham-H

Hi all,
I've been lurking and reading the Forum for a couple of weeks and thought it about time I jumped in and introduced myself because I am sure I will be needing help and advice in the coming months.

My name is Graham, I am a retired teacher from the UK ( Science & Computers ) and have been living with the new woman in my life since March 2008.
She is French Canadian and we live together in Caraquet, New Brunswick.
I have been staying on a 6 monthly visitor stamp in my passport ( now valid until May 2009 ) until I can start the process of applying for my PR as a common law partner, sponsored by girl friend. We have carefully collected as much documentation as possible to show that we live together as a couple.

I think we have read all the relevant documentation about immigration but some of it is pretty ambiguous to say the least - so expect some questions as we try and make progress through the system.

Does anyone have any idea how long the process may take for me to gain PR status - I have my pension and enough capital not to be a drain on the state.
My health is good ( for my age - 62 !! )

Must admit I wish I had concentrated more on my French lessons in school - but the Acadian French of this region seems very different from the French of my schooldays and holidays !!

Hope to hear from some of you soon - Hope you all had a good Christmas.

dbd33

Hi. I expect this approach will raise some eyebrows here. However, it's how I established a common-law union with my partner after which she was able to become a permanent resident. Good luck with it.

G77

Sounds like you have competition for the oldest computer geek on here now DBD

You may start wittering between yourselves about punch cards etc if you wish...

dbd33

Oh no, I hate that shit. Computers don't interest me at all, they're just a source of income. Here's a tale from hell though.

The Rodney King riots in LA coincided with the NASPA (National System Programmers Association) convention which I was attending in order to sell something or other. The police came and told us not to leave the hotel. There was a pool table and I was good at that game (one year I made more from 8 ball than from contracting) but no one would play.

Instead people wanted to play "guess the control block". At the time MVS was the operating system of choice. One person held a DSECT manual (a book describing the control blocks in MVS) and called out the name of a control block, the players all recited the names of the fields in that block until someone made an error when they started again. Note that there was no forfeit, no booze to buy, they just did it over and over.

A redneck I knew slightly and who had a gun, wanted to go and see "if them niggers are really crazy". I went with him rather than die of geekery.

Greenhill

For no apparent reason, that reminded me of the Amazon book search/results for 'pointers in C' back in the day. Programmer humour at its one and only best - viral infection of the 'recently viewed item' list designed to cause intrigue and suspicion in any modern relationship.

Greenhill

W00t!!11lawl... found a screen shot on the web, in case you missed this one:-

Cassie 10000

Hi

Welcome to BE a very useful website

deanjp32

How did those 2 books end up on the same page????????

Greenhill

Not sure exactly but they say a large number of people deliberately searched for the keyword 'in' on amazon then clicked the link for that second book, to move it up the ratings.

And that's not the only funny thing they did to amazon, back in 95 they were unknowingly hosting an entire porn site, nested deep in the amazon.com domain...not sure of the exact details but I think it was up there for a number of weeks before anyone realised.

triumphguy

Hi Graham

Congrats on surviving teaching! I got out after 10 years with most of my sanity intact!

Can't help on the PR question, sorry.

Tanah

No eyebrows raised here - Good luck and I wish you all the best - cant comment on the PR thing as its not the same way Im going ( common law sponsorship I mean)
welcome to the forum