Canablog

Well, then you send a "hurry-up" request to the Immigration service!

Something like that at least.. At the 21st of July we became landed immigrants. The immigration officer mentioned that the Permanent Resident card would take 6 to 8 weeks to be delivered to our address.

This Sunday I will travel the Philidelphia (USA) for Seaspan to attend a user conference of a piece of software that we use.
Unfortunately my PR card has not arrived yet, and without it I won't be allowed back into the country! On Monday Ge-an called the immigration service for me and they told her that processing time is up to 16 weeks! Oooops.. Apparently they are re-issueing card to all Permanent Residents because it needs to contain a photo (thanks to our neighbours).

Fortunately the website also describes an appeal procedure if the listed processing time has passed. The website was not updated yet to reflects the 16 weeks, so good grounds for an appeal..

Seaspan wrote a nice letter that they really need me to travel, also included an Eticket to show that there really is a journey planned and some other documents. Dumped it all on the fax and waited for an answer. They promise to reply within two business days.. It took them only a few hours.. Unfortunately they told me that it was not possible to process my application urgently :(

Today I phoned them to check what other options were available. After checking my file the lady on the phone had good news: they did process my PR card after my request and it was mailed to me today..

Wowww.. Still not entirely without error, but for a government agency not bad at all.

A Chinese colleague at DVB that shared the room with me spent several hours every month on the phone to get his Dutch permanent resident card. By the time I left it was a year after his landing.. The IND should have a look at their Canadian colleagues!

Today our first visitors returned to Germany.. It was fun having them around. Our next visitor is Ge-an's brother..

Bas