PR card success

And only 34 months after I activated my permanent residency!

To be fair, the biggest hold-up was getting the first card, in my maiden name.

However, I did apply for the updated card with my married name way back in January and I asked for urgent processing, as I was going back to Scotland for a wedding in February. They wanted me to have an appointment to pick up the card – rather than just posting it to me. Probably just as well, as my appointment letter was delivered to someone else! Apparently, two letters got grabbed and put in the same envelope, so the first I heard of it was a very apologetic letter from the CIC, with an appointment date in April.

Unfortunately, this was right in the middle of a period of lots of travelling for work, so I couldn’t make the appointment and the CIC said that the Vancouver office’s policy is to reschedule for six months after the missed appointment.

I was considering just buying a cheap or refundable train ticket and trying for urgent processing again, but then another Scottish wedding invitation came through, so I had real flights to use :)

I faxed everything to the Vancouver office on a Friday afternoon, on Monday they called to arrange a time with me and I collected my card on Tuesday. Hurrah!

It’s actually worked out quite well, as my first PR card ran from my landing date, so it would have expired in 2016. However, I won’t need to replace this new one until 2019 and (hopefully) I’ll be a citizen by then!

Even more cards

And now I’ve got my healthcare card too! I was told to chase them after 30 days, but the card arrived less than three weeks since going to the ICBC office.

I’ve also sent off my PR renewal form – to get a replacement card with my married name instead. As I’ve got a PR card now, there’s no great rush for it, but we’re going back to Scotland for a wedding in February, so I’m using the “urgent processing” method to try to push it through :)

If it doesn’t arrive in time, I’ll just use my existing card – with our marriage certificate and all my other ID just in case.
And then, hopefully, that's it – until it comes to applying for citizenship!

Happy New Year (and happy new PR card!)

Over two years since my landing trip, I finally got my PR card.

I became a permanent resident in November 2011 and gave them Tim’s sister’s address for posting my PR card. According to the CIC call centre, they tried to deliver it three times, but there was no indication why it didn’t happen – the address they had was correct, but they didn’t leave a missed delivery card or speak to anyone at the house.

Earlier this year, I got a letter with an appointment to pick up my PR card in person (and the letter was delivered to the house, so the address was definitely correct!), but it was scheduled before we moved over. After several calls and faxes, and even going to the office and speaking to the receptionist, I finally got a rescheduled appointment at the end of December.

We arrived really early, but the waiting room was pretty full already and, even though people were dealt with fairly quickly, I was seen half an hour after my appointment time.

The appointment letter said to bring various bits of documentation and that they might question me about meeting my residency requirements, so I took along a copy of our lease and my employment contract, just to show we’re here for the long haul!

Of course, after doing all that and all the fuss we had to get to this point, I was dealt with in two minutes. I handed over my passport, COPR, BC driver’s license and marriage certificate, she asked if that was us living here permanently now and I walked away with my shiny new PR card :)

We immediately went to the ICBC office and explained the situation about needing my healthcard. I was served by the same woman as before, so it was hilarious to hear her say “ooh yes, someone made a mistake there” when I explained that I’d been sent my driver’s license even without showing my PR card. Apparently, there’s no card request on my file, so she made a new one and took my photo again (thank god – the last one was awful!). I should get my card within 30 days, but I’ve at least got a client number etc, so can call them to chase it up.

So the next thing to do is get a PR card with my married name! If I’m able to apply without sending the card back, I’ll do it now. Otherwise, I’ll wait until after our trip back to the UK in February.

Finally! Appointment to pick up PR card

Well, after my ranty post the other day, I got home yesterday to a letter from CIC with my rescheduled appointment to get my PR card. And even better, the appointment is actually when I’m off work for the festive season, so I won’t even have to take time off.

It was a pretty scary looking letter though – printed on red paper and basically looking like the bailiffs were after me.

For the first time, it doesn’t have my client number written on it. I’m definitely going to ask about that when I go in – do I have my own number or am I correct in using the number I’ve always used, which is on all of their correspondence to me, but the call centre has said is actually Tim’s?

And it was sent to our house, so I think that might be everything away from Tim’s sister’s address now.

Once I've got the PR card, I'll be able to get my BC Services Card (without being cheeky and using my driver's license as ID), then the next thing is to get a card with my married name on it.

Full text of the letter:

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.

Travel Document

I’m a permanent resident of Canada, but I don’t have a PR card as the CIC haven’t been able to deliver it to our postal address in Canada and I wasn’t in the country for my appointment to pick it up.

A Travel Document is a single-use visa that gets stuck in your passport and allows you to enter Canada without a PR card and it’s mainly used by the citizens of countries that need a visa to enter Canada. However, I’m a British citizen with a passport, so I don’t need a visa to enter Canada (for visiting, anyway). People on the British Expats forum say “if you’re British and think you need a Travel Document, you really don’t” and there are various personal experiences of people not requiring it or confusing immigration officials by being British and having one.

However, if we’re being technical, all returning permanent residents without PR cards do require a Travel Document. There can also be issues with airlines not allowing people to board their flight if they hold a one-way ticket but don’t have a PR card. The airline could face big costs if they have to send you back to the UK as Canada haven’t let you in.

Also, in our personal experience, the last time we visited Vancouver (after I had landed and activated my PR status, but we were just over for a holiday), the immigration officer at the “returning residents” line said that I should have got one.

Bearing all that in mind, I decided to get a Travel Document just to be on the safe side!

As usual, the form is on the CIC website – it’s fairly self-explanatory, although I had the additional step of explaining my new married name and passport number. Two bits were rather irritating though – I needed new passport photos taken and they wanted the originals of various important documents to be sent!

After thinking I had been so clever in getting extra photos the last time, this form requires a very slight difference in measurements:

We also needed to send our actual passports and marriage certificate – seems a bit silly when the actual permanent residency application just needed photocopies of things.

Since I applied for permanent residency, a new Canadian Visa Application Centre has opened in London and it does all the processing of applications. This added an extra form, so you consent to a third party dealing with your stuff. The Travel Document application cost £32, which was only payable by postal order (I suspect this may be the only time in my life I have to get a one!), plus they needed a pre-paid self-addressed Special Delivery Envelope.

So with fees and photos, the whole application has cost around £50 – if it all goes through okay, that’s a cheap price for peace of mind. On the other hand, I do now have seven working days of stressing about VFS losing our passports or marriage certificate!

Rescheduling – nothing is ever simple

Using the cheeky redirection from before, I phoned the CIC Call Centre and spoke to a very nice guy about rescheduling my appointment to pick up my PR card. After putting me on hold to check, he said that he wasn’t able to reschedule my appointment himself. If I missed the appointment, the CIC would just send me another appointment letter – usually within six months.

Alternatively, I could try faxing the Vancouver Permanent Resident Card Centre (fax number 604-666-6168) with all of my details and explain that I wouldn’t make the appointment and could they reschedule for after our moving date. So this is what I’ve done – let’s see if they acknowledge my fax or just send a new letter or completely ignore everything and just send another letter after June!

And now, because I won’t have my PR card by the time we move, but we don’t want any issues with taking a one-way flight without the card, plus we want to go through the Canadian Residents line, but without being told off, I’ll be applying for a travel document.

I looked into this a few months ago, when it first looked like I wouldn’t have the PR card in time, but a new Visa Application Centre has opened up in London, so I need to check the process to follow.

The future

Big news first – we got married! So, common-law no more :)

We’ve also set a moving date (end of August) and have our flights and first months’ rental booked. We’ll do some research before we go, but the plan is to use September to sort out jobs and a more permanent place to rent.

Tim’s sister received a letter for me from the CIC last week. Unfortunately, not the long-awaited PR card itself, but an appointment to pick it up in person. I really don’t understand how they can manage to post a letter to the address, but don’t seem able to deliver the card – or at least leave a ‘missed delivery’ note for it! Anyway, I’ll be phoning them this week to reschedule the appointment for when I’m in the country.

Full text of the letter:

Over a year and no PR card!

No sign of my PR card at Tim’s sister’s house yet, so I phoned CIC again.

Even using VOIP, I couldn’t get through on +1-888-242‑2100 this time, but we discovered that calling the Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade on +1-613-944-4000 and selecting the immigration option actually transfers you to the CIC call centre!

If you don’t get through to an agent immediately, try again. The first time I rang them, I got right through the menu options, before being told that they were too busy. The second time, I got through to an agent, but my mobile signal was rubbish, so I gave up. The third time was too busy again. The fourth time, I got an automatic message saying that the toll free number wasn’t available in my area. The fifth time, I got through!

The agent checked my file and said that the card had been returned again. He triple checked my address details – “are you sure there isn’t an apartment number or anything?” – then put in a request to have the card sent out again.

He said it would take six weeks, which is less than the current CIC processing time of 58 days. I’ve got a reminder on my calendar to chase them immediately!

If the card doesn’t get delivered again, I guess my next option is giving them Tim’s cousin’s address or just waiting until we have our apartment rental in September and using that.

If I don’t get my PR card before we move, it’s not the end of the world, but it would make getting through immigration quicker and I’d like to be able to show it to any landlords / employers that ask.

Visiting Vancouver – after landing, but before moving!

This time last week, we were waking up and having breakfast on our flight home from Vancouver.

Jetlag hit us pretty hard for the first couple of nights back at home, but we’ve also had to deal with how much we miss being in Vancouver. To be honest, the possibility of moving had taken a bit of a back seat – both of our jobs are going really well, we’re planning the wedding etc. However, this trip seems to have reignited our motivation and we’re now properly planning again.

Obviously, there are some important practicalities to deal with – the biggest one being saving up enough money to have a safety net. Even though we hope we’d be able to get decent jobs in Vancouver, we’d like to have the resources to be able to live without salaries for a few months, as well as actually having the cash to pay for moving!

Unfortunately, my PR card didn’t arrive while we were out there – I’m going to give the CIC a couple of weeks, then phone them again.

When we arrived at Vancouver Airport, we headed for the “Canadian Residents” line, just like the immigration officer told me in November. However, the guy at the desk said that I actually should have applied for a travel document, as I don’t have a PR card yet. I cringed a bit and waited for him to tell us off and/or send us back into the HUGE immigration line for international passports, but he just waved us through. I don’t think they’d do that in Britain or America!

Still no PR Card

So, on 18th April, I used the CIC address notification service. The current processing time for first time PR cards is 46 days, which means I should have received it a couple of weeks ago!

The CIC website says “If you live inside Canada and if it has been longer than the time shown above since you applied, please contact the Call Centre”. However, wven though I’m not currently in Canada, I was able to use a VOIP service to call the number :)

After a LONG phone menu and a nice “our current wait time is 8 minutes” announcement (British call centres take note!), I got to speak to an agent. She looked up my file and said that the PR Card was “held as undelivered” back in January, but they did have my new address, so she wasn’t sure why it hadn’t been sent out yet. After putting me on hold, she confirmed that she’s put in a request for the card to be sent out again and I should get it in 2-3 weeks (i.e. when we’re in Vancouver for our summer holiday!).

The agent also mentioned that my deadline for applying for this first card was 11th July and, after that, I’d have had to reapply. This wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it would cost another $50 and I’d need more passport photos and documents certified.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Update

I’ve been a permanent resident for 162 days now, but there’s still no sign of the PR card. I assumed the woman at immigration meant that the delivery guy wouldn’t be able to hand it over if I wasn’t there, but reading the British Expats Forum, it looks like she meant she couldn’t even process the address.

So I’ve now used the CIC Address Notification system to give them Tim’s sister’s address. Apparently, they just post first-time PR cards, but you need to go to a CIC office to prove your identity for any replacements – we’re heading over to Vancouver in July, so I can go to an office then if needed!

The more important update is that we’re now engaged :)

Permanent Residence activated

I’ve been a Permanent Resident of Canada for 50 days now!

We were planning to have a wee recce trip together in the autumn, but it didn’t work out with Tim’s work, so I was resigned to taking a trip in spring 2012. Instead, my PR was confirmed incredibly quickly and I found myself booking a last-minute landing trip to Vancouver in some holiday time I already had booked off from work.

I arrived on a Tuesday night and left on Friday evening, so had very little time to do anything. Keeping close to UK hours meant that I didn’t have any jetlag at all, but I also didn’t have any evening activities or a chance to meet up with Tim’s family.

I won’t bore you with the tourist-y details of my trip, except to say that my highlights were:

• Circle Craft Christmas Market
• Neon exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver
• Seeing the Olympic Cauldron lit up at Canada Place
• Remembrance Day service at Victory Square, including singing ‘O Canada’ with other people for the first time :)
• Getting caught in a torrential thunderstorm on the seawall in Stanley Park

Details of the actual immigration process below...