Sunday, June 21, 2009

Delays

I was very excited to see the envelope from the FBI in the mailbox, it was a sweet surprise!

It took 16 days from sending in Kyle's fingerprints to receive them back with the "No record of arrest" stamp on the back. I was expecting it to take 3-4 weeks, and had been reading about it taking longer then 12 weeks for some.... needless to say - we're relieved!!!

We finished all our paperwork today but hit another little road block. I'm in Nebraska right now but need my "Option C printout" from Revenue Canada. Not sure how this slipped by me, but tomorrow I have to call and get it mailed to our Canadian address - and send out our whole package from Canada when I get back there (July 7th).

Right now I'm a little upset that we can't mail this package out right away. I'm very anxious, nervous and excited at the same time!

It's June and all I've been thinking about is Christmas... Will I get to be with my husband? Will we have our first little family Christmas in our home? We must make stockings together to hang by the fireplace, drink eggnog, and go caroling with Grandma! I guess my ultimate goal is to have Kyle in Canada for Christmas (that would be the sweetest present of them all), but my guess is that it will take until February/March 2010 for all the paperwork to go through. That's 7-8 months from July.

[Currently the processing times on the immigration website say 38 days for sponsorship applications, and 5-6 months for permanent residence applications.]

For now all we can do is wait to send all these forms in and enjoy the rest of the time we have together for this summer.

Happy Father's day to all the dads out there! I'm going to call mine right now.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Our Story

It's not every day you have to go to the police station to get fingerprinted for the FBI - but today is exactly that kind of day for my husband.

We have been planning for him to immigrate from the USA to Canada for years now and it's finally time! Nearly all of our paperwork is complete, he gets his fingerprints taken at lunch, and we have a medical exam scheduled for June 15, incidentally on his 24th birthday. We have to travel to Iowa to have the medical done by a doctor that is approved from Canada to do this kind.

For anyone planning to follow along with us to help with their own immigration journey, here's some background information:

-Husband (Kyle) and myself (Kate) met on the internet (and started dating) in 2001 when I was 13 and he was 15.

-I did not realize it at the time but I had some pretty cool parents because they drove to Ohio with me a year and a half into our relationship to meet Kyle and his parents in person because we were serious about our relationship. (I'm not sure even we would ever do that for our daughter if we have one...)

-We met a bunch of times and spent summer vacations together mostly in Canada.

-In February 2007 Kyle proposed to me while I visited him in Nebraska (where he is stationed for the US Air Force) I said yes!

-September, 2008 we married in Canada, had our honeymoon at Disney World, and I stayed in Nebraska for a while with him after the honeymoon.

-Kyle had the option of getting out of the Air Force a year early but we decided financially it was better for him to stay in until September, 2009 even if it causes us more heartache being apart most of our first year of being married. No matter what, we are going to be together for our one year wedding anniversary!

Currently I am visiting with Kyle in Nebraska, and plan to be here until July. Goodbyes are always so hard, as anyone in our situation can surely sympathize with.

It has been a crazy journey so far and I'm sure it will continue to be crazy until my husband can finally come to Canada to stay. We can't wait for this emotional roller coaster to be over!