Passports handed in!

Well, hubby took our passports in yesterday, to the London office. There was a huge queue when he arrived (and, of course, they only open for a short time!). He tells me that that the security was intense, far more than coming through customs at the airport - he had a very dis-organised laptop with his phone cable, calculator, etc stuffed in and they went through it several times before they finally allowed him to move on. It was very stressful, he said. Took a while to get through all that, then he was taken through to where you hand in the passports, and that was over in about 10 seconds! He was given a Tombola-type ticket in receipt and told to come back in two weeks' time!
So, there is light at the end of the tunnel ... !

Domino Effect (financial crisis)

Have just been hearing about the current financial crisis, banks collapsing and folks losing life savings tied up in shares. Scary stuff.
For us, it means that hubby is unlikely now to be able to come over to join us until maybe next April.
Is anyone else affected by the current state of affairs, if so how? There always seems to be SOMEthing to keep us down to earth with all the excitement of new lives and dreams ...

Passport Requests!!

On Thursday 2nd October, we had a letter from the Embassy (in reply to ours of 16th August!!!!) saying they'd sent the passport request letter originally to our old address. To cut a long story short, we now have the passport request and hubby is likely going to go into CHC with them in person. I have no idea how quickly these get turned around, whether he will be sent away and they'll forward them, or whether he will walk out of that darned place with those lovely new, shiny visas ... who knows.
But we are so very nearly there (or here), it's very exciting (and this could be the shortest blog ever!!!)
;)

Look at me - starting a blog!?

Well, I guess I should introduce our story: we passed our medicals back in early June ('08). Sold our house (phew). Took the plunge and moved to Canada in August. We'd had assurance that the local school would take our kids (grade 2 and 4) prior to the visas being issued, so long as (a) we could provide proof of our application for residency and (b) the visas are granted within a year of starting school (so, fingers crossed, by August 2009!??).
We haven't heard anything further from CHC. We have sent a fax them (three weeks ago!) confirming the position and asking if there is anything further they require from us ... no response at all.
We couldn't book single flights due to not having our visas, so booked to return to the UK for Christmas. Hoping that something happens in time for us to be coming back in January as residents!
The school - and life here - is brill, couldn't ask for better. We were very happy to discover that we didn't need to re-sit a driving test - I surrendered my UK licence in exchange for an Ontario one (upon passing a sight test and paying a small fee!).
Anyway, hopefully this entry is the beginning of some more eventful ones in the near future!