Monday, November 26, 2007

Fall down, get up, fall down...

Alas, Mr. O didn't get the great job after all. It came down to him and one other candidate, and the other guy got it. Although this sucks for multiple reasons, I am somehow grateful that he didn't get it because he wasn't the right guy, rather than because of the visa BS involved. However, the woman who interviewed him was apparently very impressed, and has passed his name on to several other potential employers. He already has another second interview this week.

To make matters worse, Mr. O saw an email from his current employer not intended for his eyes, which sorta kinda said that staff in other locations doing the same job were being paid $6 more an hour. Since his probation had just ended, he talked to his superior about a potential raise, and got a lame answer about it "not being in the business plan." All of which makes it that much harder to stay and work when he could be doing something more interesting for more money elsewhere.

And of course, this is where it really gets complicated: he gets a call from a woman in Stockholm looking for talent to staff a new company, and is he coming to Europe any time soon and would he like an interview? And does he have a family, because they would pay to relocate? Etc. etc. Maybe it's just the winter blahs, but Stockholm sounds pretty fun right now. We could quit a few months early, do a cross-Canada tour for two months, and then head on home on someone else's tab. Mr. O says This is more like it.

So that's the current fantasy. As a consolation prize, his employer has agreed to let Mr. O work from home, so he'll have more time for other things, maybe a pro bono project to keep his portfolio fresh, some music stuff, playing with the cat, whatever. I'm hoping that this, coupled with a steady-enough stream of interviews and other interest from local agencies, will carry us through to the new year career-wise.

To be fair, he's feeling much more pragmatic about the whole thing lately. There was a little bit of doom and gloom last week, and I have to agree that it would have been much easier to do this kind of thing at 25, like I did, than at 30, like he is. But to take off for Scandinavia after all of four months would be like cheating, worse, it would be a pathetic defeat. And so we take small victories and go from there.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

CIC annual report

The 2007 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration was presented on Oct 31. My favorite highlight:
The 2008 levels plan upholds Canada’s support for family reunification by planning for between 68,000 and 71,000 admissions of spouses, partners, dependants, parents and grandparents in 2008.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Track it

Matthew Carroll (Carroll.org.uk) tracks the CIC's historical performance according to the fluctuating estimates and averages provided by the CIC itself. I note with a sneer that times for "Sponsor - spouse" are up slightly, but the fact that 'PR - spouse' has decreased by a good four months since we talked to that nice immigration lawyer in January.

Trakitt.com takes a spreadsheet approach, with pages for immi to Canada, the US, UK, and India, divided by application class. The family class page for a country lists all cases according to date and shows the office and all the major milestone dates from application to approval, which makes it easy to compare your case with others from the same office, and count on your fingers and toes how long it took them to get through. It also gives examples of standard documents such as the AOR letter, which the friendly CIC woman told me that we wouldn't be receiving on an inland. Note there is not a single member of Finnish nationality listed on the page.

Based on trakkit, estimated times on the CIC site seem to be relatively accurate, though not astounding by any stretch. A sample case of an American applying through Vegreville April 26 had his/her sponsorship approved Nov 7, with the landing interview scheduled for Nov 27. That's seven months on the nose, door to door. At the time the sponsor was approved, the AIP would also have come, and so at that time the open work permit could be granted (apparently you can also send the OWP application in ahead of time, so it can - theoretically - be processed at the same time. Otherwise it can also take a while.). So while times from app to sponsorship approval are much faster say, through the Buffalo office (which, along with Vegreville, seems to take a larger share of applications), those people have to wait another five to six months afterward, so it all works out about the same in the end.

3 weeks and counting

Unless we've somehow got the number wrong, it's been three weeks, which is about the average time (according to my highly unscientific research trawling the immigration.ca forums) it takes for an app to go from 'received' to 'in process'. They usually update e-cas on Mondays, so whether we got in just under the line or it's fallen behind a desk somewhere, we won't know till for at least another week.

My curiosity about the immigration officers, their training and systems is growing by the day. I am dying to know what their offices look like, for instance, and what kind of set-up they have. Do they do the background checks themselves, or through consulates, or police? It seems like an interesting job, though I've never met anyone who does it. Have you?

According to Wikipedia, some basic trivia:
The Citizenship and Immigration Canada department employs 5,000 staff, which on a per-capita basis is three times as many as the 15,000 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees, but recoups some of its department costs through landing fees. In 2006 the Canadian government reduced the landing fee per immigrant by 50%.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

While the getting's good

If I could change one thing about our little immigration process, it would be to change the law to allow spouses of Canadian citizens temporary open work permits while their applications are in process (Interestingly, this option is open to spouses of temporary workers).

The motivation for this particular whinge is simple and timely: Mr. O is *this* close to a job offer in his field, but if and when he gets it, he'll have the unenviable task of informing his new would-be employer that they need to okay it with the federal government first. And in his case, through the Canadian High Commission in London. Last time it took seven weeks, and right now the average processing times are longer than they were last time around. In such a competitive industry, there is a real chance that they won't be willing to wait that long, especially when Human Resources and Social Development Canada has veto rights.

Lucky for us, Mr. O fits into the title of "Interactive Media Developer," dont'chaknow, which seems to be a sought-after category, a.k.a. a "good" job. The Ontario Immigration portal lists these by municipal region. (Go ahead, look yourself up. I know you're curious.)

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Smarter than your average Canadian

And yet more likely to be unemployed. Authors of an Institute for Research on Public Policy study contributed a column to today's Globe and Mail:

"Immigration and integration - More must be done to improve the economic prospects of highly educated immigrants"

"Much of the rhetoric in today's debate on reasonable accommodation of minorities misses a critical and obvious point: that integration into a new society begins with a job. Work is a source of both cultural socialization and acclimation.

For this reason, a recently released Statistics Canada report on immigrant labour-market integration is troubling. It revealed, among other things, that unemployment among newcomers is double the Canadian average.

While the fact that recent arrivals make less money and experience higher unemployment is hardly news, the profile of the current cohort of immigrants makes this very troubling. Since the 1990s, Ottawa and Quebec (which establishes its own selection requirements) have emphasized education and experience as criteria for immigrants. As a result, recent groups of newcomers are better educated and more skilled than previous generations. Their educational credentials now surpass those of the average Canadian-born citizen..."

Brahim Boudarbat and Maude Boulet are, respectively, a professor and a PhD student at Université de Montréal. Their study, "Détérioration des salaires des nouveaux immigrants au Québec par rapport à l'Ontario et à la Colombie-Britannique," published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy, is available at www.irpp.org.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Facing e-casing

Today I had my first conversation with a real live CIC rep on the phone, in an attempt to get our client number to track our e-cas status online. It turns out that this number is the same that is on Mr. O's temporary work permit (it was a blank on the fees receipt that we didn't fill, although apparently this doesn't matter). If I had dealt with CIC in the past, I would also be able to use the number issued then to track this sponsorship. One number per person? That's almost Finnish in its organization and coordination! Who knew the Canadians were so coordinated and organized? And why didn't we find this little detail on the site anywhere? Reputations are at stake!

Interesting also that she couldn't release the number to me, even though I'm his sponsor - apparently we'd have to send in a release of information or use of a representative form in order to grant me access. Of course, Mr. O could call in and request the information himself, since it's his file. She also said that even with the number it was unlikely that we'd see anything on the file at this early date. Don't think that's going to stop me from punching it in as soon as I get home tonight.

She also said that in-Canada sponsorships work a bit differently, and that, unless they have to contact us to request clarification or missing information on the app, we shouldn't expect to hear from the CIC for about six months after the date of receipt, at which point Mr. O will get his first stage approval and can apply for an open work permit. It's apparently at that stage that I would receive my very own client ID number for e-cas, although what this would show me about Mr. O's status is unclear. While it's nice that it's all bundled into one step, it's a bit strange that they don't send any confirmation of receipt.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Finland in TO

Ah, the expat social calendar is filling up. What's on the agenda? Drooling drunken kossu-fueled pikkujoulut? Nah. Pity.


Saturday Nov 24, Toronto Finnish Theatre Co (sorta like the Finn Brit Players but in reverse, shudder) presents a comedy in Finnish: Suur-Jussilan isännän kompleksi. Don't tell me: a post-modern Seven brothers?

Tuesday Nov 27, Suomi-Koti Outreach Program presents a cheery speaker, Tohtori Veli Ylänkö, speaking on "Preparing for death". Musical guests for the evening are Mikko ja Kari, otherwise known as Kaksi miestä ja kitara.

Friday Nov 30, Finland's' 90th independence day gala, at the Granite Club, featuring keynote speaker Ossi Kervinen, Director of Public Relations, Defense Command Finland. Tickets a steal at $100 a pop, but warning, first come first served.

I couldn't make this stuff up.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

From sOHIP to nOHIP - cont.

So Mr. O got his OHIP card in the mail today and I didn't get mine! No fair! On the other hand, lucky I shelled out for private health insurance, in case they've actually lost it or something...I wonder how I might go about checking on that, considering I have no receipt or reference number?

E-cas

Browsing the immigration.ca forums I found a thread started by my people - others who have started the application process in October 07. This three-legged race seems to be measured by electronic client application status or e-cas statements, which are valuable yet painfully incomplete little crumbs and fragments of information provided on your file. To access your e-cas you need a client ID number, which I don't have, but that I can apparently get by calling CIC. I'm also expecting a letter of some kind confirming the receipt of my application, that should also state our case number, but who knows how long that might take to arrive.
Now is when I get paranoid about not having my tax forms from Canada, and being rejected as a sponsor on that basis despite my polite letter and Finnish substitution. At least the forum peeps are relatively optimistic about the whole thing, and it will be interesting to see how we all fare in the coming months. Most of them had an update from "received" to "in process" within a few weeks. Let's get this Mr. O show on the road, hmm?