$5.25 a finger

Mr. O is going to get his fingerprints, um, taken (?) at the Toronto Police Service today. He called and they told him "they've given these services to private companies" in the past. He needs two pieces of ID and $52.50. Then he can ship these off to Abu Dhabi where they can compare them with the prints they took when he got his work permit there. (It could be worse, I suppose: the Emirati government took an iris scan, too.)

Time off for good conduct

Mr. O sent in his application for an open work permit before we left for holidays at the end of May. Current processing time is 40 days, so we're not expecting to hear anything before July. It's unclear if we need to reapply for a temporary residence permit despite the AIP, so we'll have to call CIC to check on that. It's just that it's summer and so easy to get lazy...

To proceed with the actual permanent residence card, Mr. O needs to get a Certificate of Good Conduct and police check from the Abu Dhabi government, as he lived there for more than six months in the past 10 years. As part of the process, he has to be fingerprinted by the police here, which is, as he says, "kinda creepy."

That's nothing compared to the Brazil-esque (again, the movie, not the country) process of obtaining forms in Abu Dhabi. I remember when Mr. O went in to get his UAE driver's licence; we had our own personal Arabic-speaking fix-it guy and it still took us several trips. From the above link:

We suggest that you send the documents to a friend and your friend can obtain the certificate from the Police Department on your behalf so the processing time will be faster than sending it directly by courier to the Police Department.

Since we have few "friends" left down there (the Finnish satellite office Mr. O worked at is now closed), we aren't sure how long this will take.

P.s. The trip over the border and back again was uneventful. We got lucky with our officers, I guess, as they were all very friendly while others had more of a time of it. Hooray for being white.

Down with the OWP

So after waiting patiently for me to renew my passport (my previous one, barely used, was not machine-readable, for some reason unexplained by the Canadian consulate in Helsinki, and so no good for visiting the U.S.), Mr. O shipped off his app for his open work permit this week. He's not feeling good about crossing the border, but we've been assured that his passport and work permit together are sufficient. I've stowed away the numbers of two different immigration lawyers, just in case. You never know.

I have no idea how long it will take to get the OWP back, and don't really care. It's summer, after all, and Mr. O's current papers give him residence rights till August. Without tempting the bureaucracy gods, we should be okay.

Other than that, there hasn't been a lot going on on the ungrateful immigrant front, hence the lack of posts. Although, I happened to meet a civil servant from the CIC at a bar a few weeks back, which was inneresting...I asked him about immigration officers' educational requirements and he said that they can range from your basic GED all the way up to a degree in immigration law. We also agreed that the officers at the border are scarily young. AND **he offered me a tour of a CIC office** which, seeing as I have no contact info for him, was likely just a gesture of friendliness, but hey, if you're reading this...callllll meeee! I will leak your info anytime! Quid pro quo, baby.

Good news via snail mail

On vapunaatto both Mr. O and I got letters from the CIC. Mine congratulated me on being accepted as a sponsor, while his informed him he was now able to apply for an open work permit, and requested a police report from the UAE (where we spent seven months a few years ago), which can be obtained through that country's embassy in Ottawa.

This comes just in time, as we were starting to think Mr. O was going to have to push his employer to renew his temporary work visa before he could even apply for the OWP. Of course, we're feeling a bit lazy and haven't actually filled in the forms yet. But it's nice to know we can.

Only one small gripe: the letter was dated March 31. How it took a month to get from Ottawa to Toronto, we'll never know.

Hardly news

Canadians are a racist lot, confirmed once again by a poll reported in the Globe and Mail today. According to the article, over 60% of people here (of undefined ethnic origin) feel that Canada makes too many "accommodations" for minorities. (Cuz you know, after they roll out the red carpet at CIC, there are headhunters and real estate agents throwing jobs and homes at everybody.)

The reasoning behind this is revealed in the answers to further questions, such as the 45% of people who feel immigrants "hold onto their own customs for too long." While 65% of people who live in Canadian cities feel that diversity enriches society, this is also an essentially selfish view, as if the only purpose for the presence of minorities is to make the lives of "real" Canadians better. This is so depressing, I don't even think I can rant about it.

Do you feel lucky?

Those of you who participated in the papers pool are now drooling with anticipation, I know. I should make a correction, though, because when I set the estimate at around 6 to 7 months, I was actually referring to the time to the AIP rather than the actual landing date, which we now know will come much later. Mr. O noticed this right away and changed his bet, but since we are not immigration lawyers and can't be expected to understand all this double speak, rather than postponing the pool or making you all bet again, I thought I'd just reword it to the above. So the same dates still stand for the AIP letter, and for those who haven't bet, there's still time!

Pick me!

It seems as if the government is moving closer to passing Bill C-31, the amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act it proposed last month. The system aims to decrease backlog (though it only applies to applications received after Feb 2008) and fast-track those applicants who have the skills most needed in the Canadian labour market.

Speaking of backlog, in the CIC FAQ on the topic I found this interesting tidbit, answering a nagging question:

...just before the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act was implemented in 2002, there was a flood of applications from people who wanted to get their applications in before the new rules took effect.

It seems that this applies to the skilled worker class only, in which it can currently take up to, wait for it, 68 months. In theory, anything to reduce this wait will be a good thing, and setting annual limits would help stop the strain on resources (because as nice as it is to let everybody in, what's the point if we're not going to back it up with money?) but I'm suspicious of the Conservatives and how they might play this (a stripper ban?). Critics say that this will block people who are coming to be reunited with their families, and it remains to be seen if resources from family class will be diverted or if the money promised to immigration will cover new resources. It's also unclear how those doctors and other badly needed professionals will be integrated once they arrive...how's about a bill on that, boys?