Update

It's been at least five days since I wrote about immigration. When I got home from football last Wednesday, another applicant who'd been following my case had left a couple of comments, saying my dates matched his. That made the second such person inside of a week. He'd contacted LA in early January and got a reply after five or six days saying that Ottawa hadn't sent his medical results and they'd 'get onto them'. The other person then said they got the same response on Friday. I managed to find a phone number for the Regional Medical Office in Ottawa thanks to the inestimable BritishExpats.com Canada forum, with the intention getting after them at some point this week. That was until 'squirrel22' updated his profile today, and he finally got his passport request. Hopefully, my enquiry sent on Saturday afternoon prompts everyone involved in this sorry affair into similar action

Older. Wiser?

Not apparently wise enough to remember that Belgian beer goes at the end of an evening, and not the middle. Still, fish and chips*, English ales** and good company. What else can you ask for? Three points the morning after. It was asking too much, it seems.

* I'm conducting a one-man, long-term experiment to sample them everywhere I've been. The only place to be truly blown away was a pub in Hamilton called The Winking Judge. All else pale in comparison.

** At ferocious prices.

Escalation

I've spent the morning completing another visitor permit application and all the fun of the fair that entails. While I was in the mood, I drafted another case-specific enquiry to CIC Los Angeles. I'm fed up of politely waiting....

To whom it may concern.

I submitted my Canadian Experience Class application to CIC Buffalo in October 2010, before transfer to CIC LA on May 17^th 2011. It is now 472 days since my application was sent; beyond the published 15 month processing time, and approaching six months beyond the stated service standard.

According to the CEC immigration tracker on www.trackitt.com, most of a representative number of other cases transferred to CIC LA in May 2011 were approved (i.e. passports requested) in mid to late October 2011. Given such information, there is obviously a delay in the processing of my application, whether it is medical results, security check or otherwise. Clarification of the situation would be appreciated.

Following your medical request letter of August 2^nd 2011, I did my medicals on August 15^th. The DMP concerned advises me that the results were sent to the Regional Medical Office in Ottawa on September 1^st. Have the results been received?

I think it only fair at this point that I am given some indication of the reason for the delay, and how much longer the process will take. I have been on a visitor permit since September 1^st 2011; such a situation is unsustainable in the long term.

If there is any more information I can furnish you with to facilitate the process, please don’t hesitate to contact me, I would be delighted to forward it to you.

Edit. Message sent. Confirmation "we received your enquiry" email landed. Now more waiting. Will I get a response this time?

Rejection

I just got an email from the other University in town for the teaching position I applied for. There was a mild moment of excitement; who contacts unsuccessful applicants in this day and age. I open the email.

We have had the opportunity to review your resume and regret to inform you that we have chosen to pursue other candidates whose skills, background, and education more closely match our needs.

To say that I'm gobsmacked at this is something of an understatement.

Spy

Last night saw a first trip to the cinema in almost two and a half years, to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, as an early birthday treat, which was finally released in North America almost six months after it was in the UK. Having read neither the book, nor seen the TV series featuring Alec Guinness, it was a good excuse to finally delve back in to a genre I enjoy reading/watching. As we joked this morning watching the football in the pub, we were considerably younger than a significant proportion of the audience; lots of grey hair. But then I have a bit so I'm beginning to blend in.

I won't give the plot away in case anyone who reads this might end up watching it on my TV one day*, but it's beautifully shot and very well acted. It's nice, in the aftermath of the style of the Bourne films (which I also like, to be clear) for a story to be very languidly told, no jerky camera moves, loud bangs, car chases and so on. I don't think Gary Oldman in the central role speaks for the first twenty minutes of the film. I'll be interested to read the book to see how much was omitted. In most cases, I usually find that the book is better since material has to cut to make the film a reasonable length.

Now if they could only make a film of Tom Clancy's The Cardinal of the Kremlin**...

*    you know who you are..

** and make a better fist of it than The Sum Of All Fears, which was, after the passing of ten years, and repeated viewings, not a good adaptation.

Cold

I don't really think there needs to be much in the way of explanation for the picture on the left. It was -29 today.

That's cold.

Still Waiting

So we're now past the fifteen months that Canadian Immigration advertise this application as taking (day 458 if you're keeping score). And I'm still no nearer to finding out what the holdup is since the FOI request for my file printout has still not arrived. If I haven't heard anything by next Friday (my birthday), there'll be another visitor permit application sent for yet more waiting.

Everything comes to he who waits, someone once said. It doesn't.