ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: Paranoia during the "wait"

[Dani_y28]

Add me to the list! I love this forum but gosh I've become not paranoid but crazy ever since joining, not to mention my stress levels have peeked to the very top.

1. I wake up and immediately check my phone! I used to get about 20 emails in the morning from my favorite stores with what I love-Coupons. NOT anymore , last week I unsuscribed from almost every place.

2. Now I stare at my phone all day waiting for an email. When it beeps I literarily run and start shaking to afterwards feel the disappointment that it was from whatever I missed when unsubscribing.

3. I'm constantly on this forum and I freak when I see things that I should have done and didn't (my right of permanent residence fee)

4.my husband (in Canada) is all against the forum because he believes each case is different and I give everything too much importance.

5- this whole immigration process was 10 times harder in every aspect as to what I had expected, but I'm glad I'm not alone because only you guys know how we all feel.

P.S the Canadian government should give us free psychological help when we all land in Canada.

 

[goldenkagi]

I learned French in uni. I took five courses in three years, all the way up to Business French. Now that I'm done with school, I've forgotten almost everything. I still kick myself for not practicing more frequently. Now I have to relearn everything if I want to speak French

I'm a rather paranoid person. In high school, I once woke up in the middle of the night panicking. I thought that i forgot to pass a paper or something. Turns out I already had clearance for that class, meaning I submitted everything already. Boo.

About our application, oh lawd there were many many moments. In one of them, i was lying awake in bed after my husband mailed our app. Suddenly, so many events from our 6 years together came flooding. I never thought to include them. Now I think our app is missing details. I also didnt think to write down more people who knew about us. Among other stuff. Gah!

I included original tickets and passes, which I tore out from my diary/scrapbook. Then, I also put in this card which had the autograph of one of our favorite collegiate basketball players. Our VO is not consistent in returning things. Some people get back everything, others just photos, others just get their passports back. I'm a packrat and a very sentimental person. I keep things like candy wrappers too :

 

[Zouk Princesse]

We were pretty much event-free right up until the home stretch, then all hell broke loose!

Our VO sent our PPR via snail mail instead of email, took about 4 weeks to receive.
My husband hurried and sent in his passport - DHL was grounded due to a hurricane, plane couldn't leave the island.
Package finally arrives in POS, can't be delivered - visa office closed due to flooding
After a 4 week wait, call from VO saying we're sending your passport back today (Friday) - oops, office closed at 1, DHL came too late and couldn't get in.
Package supposed to go out on Monday - visa office closed due to national holiday
Package finally leaves visa office, DHL plane gets stuck in neighboring island. My husband camps out at the airport and literally takes the package from DHL plane himself.
Husband on his way to the airport the next day, vehicle goes down in a pothole, tire rim literally breaks.
Flights to Canada - both delayed.

That's our story of fun and shenanigans with immigration

 

[parker24]

That's the thing. A friend warned be even before I applied, not to listen to everyone's advice. Some will just make you worry more.

After listening to my in-laws and American friends ask "well he married you, doesn't that mean he's Canadian?" I've come to accept that no one has any clue what you actually have to do except those who ACTUALLY went through it!!

Sweden, thank you! I was rather proud of myself

 

[Sweden]

We were pretty much event-free right up until the home stretch, then all hell broke loose!

Our VO sent our PPR via snail mail instead of email, took about 4 weeks to receive.
My husband hurried and sent in his passport - DHL was grounded due to a hurricane, plane couldn't leave the island.
Package finally arrives in POS, can't be delivered - visa office closed due to flooding
After a 4 week wait, call from VO saying we're sending your passport back today (Friday) - oops, office closed at 1, DHL came too late and couldn't get in.
Package supposed to go out on Monday - visa office closed due to national holiday
Package finally leaves visa office, DHL plane gets stuck in neighboring island. My husband camps out at the airport and literally takes the package from DHL plane himself.
Husband on his way to the airport the next day, vehicle goes down in a pothole, tire rim literally breaks.
Flights to Canada - both delayed.

That's our story of fun and shenanigans with immigration

that's an impressive succession of events! as if somebody was really trying to get your husband to go to Canada with his PR!! it could almost be a movie, with all the various - usually not very realistic - obstacles coming up, and the brave hero fighting his way!
Well done!

 

[Sweden]

After listening to my in-laws and American friends ask "well he married you, doesn't that mean he's Canadian?" I've come to accept that no one has any clue what you actually have to do except those who ACTUALLY went through it!!

Sweden, thank you! I was rather proud of myself

You can be for sure!

My in-laws kind of got the idea (after getting a run down of all we had to do! they never asked again ), but his grand parents couldn't quite get it - according to them, since I was a "good person", nice, educated, fluent in english and french, I of course would be allowed in the country within weeks of asking for it! They were sweet though - they offered to call CIC to explain that really, I was a nice person and it was OK to give me my PR right away. Anything to help! I gave up explaining why it wouldn't work, and just said that I could not find the phone number of the person in charge of my file ( not completely untrue! ).

 

[moochops]

After listening to my in-laws and American friends ask "well he married you, doesn't that mean he's Canadian?" I've come to accept that no one has any clue what you actually have to do except those who ACTUALLY went through it!!

Sweden, thank you! I was rather proud of myself

OMG that is exactly what I get ........ "well now you're married doesn't that automatically make you a citizen............. ???"

I'm sure the family think I am stringing them along regarding how long this process is taking so that I can sit on my arse all day and not work ;D

 

[amikety]

OMG that is exactly what I get ........ "well now you're married doesn't that automatically make you a citizen............. ???"

I'm sure the family think I am stringing them along regarding how long this process is taking so that I can sit on my arse all day and not work ;D

I get that too from Canadians. I've had to explain 1000x why I can't work. People look at me funny.

 

[jerry84]

You can be for sure!

My in-laws kind of got the idea (after getting a run down of all we had to do! they never asked again ), but his grand parents couldn't quite get it - according to them, since I was a "good person", nice, educated, fluent in english and french, I of course would be allowed in the country within weeks of asking for it! They were sweet though - they offered to call CIC to explain that really, I was a nice person and it was OK to give me my PR right away. Anything to help! I gave up explaining why it wouldn't work, and just said that I could not find the phone number of the person in charge of my file ( not completely untrue! ).

That is the sweetest thing I have heard!

 

[amikety]

I actually know more French than my Canadian husband. I can read boxes in the grocery pretty well. He is clueless.

But my Spanish is better. Which isn't saying much. I can insult people and ask names.

 

[moochops]

Can I just say this thread is awesome and makes me feel a little more normal

 

[parker24]

I actually know more French than my Canadian husband. I can read boxes in the grocery pretty well. He is clueless.

But my Spanish is better. Which isn't saying much. I can insult people and ask names.

OOH! I know one swear word in Spanish (thank you best friend) starts with a p, ends with a ta

 

[antz21]

I just want to say that I love this thread!!!

My current paranoia is if I deleted an email from CIC without realising... (despite the fact that I have been checking my deleted folder and double check every time I check 'delete'). Oh the joys of now being 'in process'... The waiting game continues!

OMG that is exactly what I get ........ "well now you're married doesn't that automatically make you a citizen............. ???"

I'm sure the family think I am stringing them along regarding how long this process is taking so that I can sit on my arse all day and not work ;D

And I get the "So you're Canadian now right?" ... "No I married a Canadian" ... "So you're applying to be Canadian?" ... "No, just so I can live and work there - like a green card." ... "Ohhh..."
I work with mostly Americans - I should have learnt by now just to explain the PR process as the Canadian version of a green card.

 

[darwinwap]

I read about inland transfers in this forum before AIP, people waiting over 2 years for an interview, and some being rejected. I got too paranoid with the posts that I thought it will happen to me and I wasn't able to sleep for a night and was restless till we finally got fist stage done. I don't know if it was worth it going through all that stress but I can't help but to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

 

[BCgirl2012]

Our medicals expired because I was in too much of a hurry to do them first thing last year (I had no idea how much paperwork is involved, and had naively thought we just do the medicals and fill a few forms). Our VO had a processing time of 5 months back then when we finally submitted, so this didn't seem like a big deal, until the processing time jumped to 16 months.

They finally started looking at our file in January, after 7 months. Then they requested a medical extension in February. I thought I'd be happy to hear that they've done so. Now after reading here that it takes 2-3 months for the extension request to go through, I'm having the following nightmarish set of thoughts a few times a day:

-The medical extensions will arrive after 3 months, probably some time in May. By then, all of the police certificates will be over a year old, and after a few weeks we will receive an email requesting new PCs . Mind you the FBI took almost 3 months last time. So then I have this theory that we will maybe receive his visa at end of summer.(If we are lucky- that is) :-X

I know it's totally unreasonable, but paranoia isn't really reasonable