First 100 days - part two

Okay, so technically the title should be 110 days now!

PR card

• To be honest, I’m pretty p*ssed off about the whole PR card thing – I still don’t have it!
• I really wish that I hadn’t bothered giving them an address back in 2011 and had just applied for my card when we arrived in August, as the current processing times mean they’d have sent the card by now!
• So the last update was that I was given an appointment to pick up my card from the CIC, but I wasn’t in the country then. The CIC call centre said that the appointment would be rescheduled automatically and suggested that I fax the office if I wanted to tell them when I was arriving etc.
• As expected – no response! When we arrived in Vancouver, I phoned the call centre again and was told again to just wait for a rescheduled appointment. We even went to the office where the appointment would be to see if they could give me a new date, but the receptionist just said I had to wait.
• 180 days passed and I phoned the call centre again, as the original letter said that my card would be destroyed if not picked up by this time. They checked my file and said that there was no note of the card being destroyed, but this time the guy said he would put a note on the system for the PR card office, to explain the situation.
• I have to phone them again in a month to see if the office has responded to the note. Unfortunately, the “month” falls right in the middle of the festive period, so I predict a LONG wait on the lovely hold music :(
• Additionally, we’re actually going back to Scotland in February for a wedding, so if the next phone call doesn’t work, I’m giving up on my original card and doing the urgent processing procedure instead.
• I was at least able to give them my new address, so there shouldn’t be any more confusion about delivery (Tim is working from home, so there’s always someone in!).
• I’m slightly concerned that they couldn’t find me on the system to begin with. I gave the client number that is on all of their correspondence and that they’ve always accepted, but this guy said that it was Tim’s client number, not mine. I wonder if this is maybe part of the problem?

Driving license

• In happier news, it's really easy to swap your UK license for a BC one! You just turn up at an ICBC office, take a number and wait for a free member of staff. They ask a few questions about what you want to do, confirm your identity, do a vision test, take payment, then ask you some simple safety questions.
• Note that the safety questions are done after the payment and the woman that served me even said “don’t worry, you can’t fail these”! Basically, they just want to highlight a couple of key issues, like not overtaking a school bus.
• They also take your photo, which is used for both your driver’s license and your healthcare card.
• The only issue I had was that their list of accepted identification doesn't allow anything international as "primary" ID. This meant I could only get a temporary paper driver’s license until my PR card came through.
• When this temporary license expired after a month, I went to another ICBC branch and explained the situation. The woman there was very helpful and issued me a temporary license that wouldn’t expire until January, so I wouldn’t have to keep coming back.
• As I explained above, I still don’t have my PR card, but I think the helpful woman must have pressed the wrong button on her computer, as my proper driver’s license appeared in the post a few days later!

Healthcare

• Canada is better than the US, but not as awesome as the NHS – you have to pay for the Medical Services Plan, but it’s not much and employers often cover the costs.
• However, coverage doesn’t start until three months of residence, so we got 90 day migrant insurance from CanadaSure to cover us.
• Now, I say three months, but it’s actually two months, plus the remainder of the month that you apply in. We got the form completed and sent off on August 29th, so our coverage started on November 1st.
• But your BC Services Card is tied into the driver’s license process, so I can’t get my card until I show ICBC my PR card. However, I’ve got my driver’s license now(!), so I phoned BC Services to see if they’ll release my card. Wonderfully, they can’t even find me in the system and they asked me for a slip that ICBC should have given me, with a “client code” on it. I don’t think I’ll get the “slip” until I’ve proved my ID (even though I’ve been sent my driver’s license!), so I’m technically without healthcare.
• I can just pay for stuff if I need it though – I was ill when we were living downtown and just went to a walk-in clinic. I could have claimed the money back from CanadaSure, but it was only $5 or so over my deductible, so seemed a bit pointless! I do worry that I’m going to end up in a car crash and Tim has to fight for the coverage that we’re already paying for.