a moderately terrifying afternoon

[jazzfish]

"They shouldn't have granted this work permit in the first place," the immigration officer said.

Our work permits expired on Friday, at the end of May. Back in late April I'd poked the HR person at work about getting them renewed, and nudged her once or twice since. She finally started getting things together the week before last while I was at WisCon. I had the option of renewing the permit, which would take up to a month and a half during which I couldn't leave Canada (well, couldn't reenter Canada, technically), or leaving and reentering and applying for a new permit. My grandmother's not in the best of health and I'd prefer not to be stuck in immigration limbo if I have to make an emergency trip to Jonesboro, so I went with option #2. I mean, the process was a little stressful last time but not so bad, and this time we'd be going through at Peace Arch where they're more on the ball, and it's just a renewal, basically a rubber-stamp, right? Right?

Friday afternoon we rented a car, got all the documents together as specified by the immigration attorney, and drove down to the Peace Arch. We zipped through the Nexus lane, drove around a couple of driving circles, and came back through the normal people lane, where the guard grumbled at us for not having any proof that we'd actually entered the US. (No passport stamp, because we'd gone out via Nexus; no US receipts, because we hadn't stopped anywhere to buy anything.) Eventually he let us through and sent us over to a parking space, where we went in for secondary processing.

I left all our documents with an officer who expresed mild disapproval at my having waited until the last minute to renew, and we sat down to wait.

After about fifteen minutes I got called up to talk to another, grumpier, officer. She handed back the Use Of Representative and Application For Permit forms, saying "I don't need those," (!) and proceeded to ask me where my offer letter was. I pointed her to the letter that work had written to the immigration authorities saying "We need this guy to do this job, with these duties, for this much money." "Yes," she said, "but that's not an offer letter to you, saying that they're offering you the job and you're going to accept, is it?"

I didn't know what to say to that.

"Also," she continued, "I'll need to see your education credentials."

"There's a photo of my diploma in there."

"I need the original, or a notarized copy. Where's the original?"

I gaped. "It's in Virginia, with my parents."

She shook her head. "What is it you're doing for this company?"

"I'm a technical writer."

"Mm-hmm. And why do you need to do that from Canada?"

I gibbered, and froze up, and eventually babbled something about this being a first step in trying to immigrate, and we'd already started the permanent resident process. She sighed and uttered the blood-chilling phrase at the top of the post, and sent us off to wait some more.

We sat, and waited, and shook, and hoped we wouldn't need to call the immigration lawyer at home (and would they even listen to the lawyer if they weren't looking at our Use Of Representative form?). After about another twenty minutes she called us back up, grumbled at us for a few minutes, and finally said, in essence, "I'm only doing this because you've already got the permanent resident process started." And after more snide comments about how they should have never let me in to start with, we walked out with brand-new two-year work permits stapled to our passports. Whereupon we drove home through rush hour traffic and collapsed and watched Leverage.

Gah. I can only hope that the permanent resident process goes a little more smoothly.

Comments

[plumbob78]

Italy doesn't want North Africans.
Germany doesn't want Turks.
The USA doesn't want Mexicans.
Canada doesn't want Americans.

Guess everybody hates southerners.

I feel bad for the penguins.

[jazzfish]

"Shadwell hated all pansy Southerners, and by implication lived at the North Pole."
--Good Omens

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is scary!

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

OMG, totally terrifying! I'm sorry you had to go through it, and thankful it worked out okay for you.

[mneme]

Eep! I'm glad it worked out!

[blairmacg.livejournal.com]

My goodness, what a stressful experience!

I've always wanted to ask people who complain when I've completed something right before deadline what sort of secret bonus points I'd missed for early completion.

But honestly, I'd read the end of that interaction as, "I called my higher-up, and the higher-up told me there was no reason to reject you, so I'll grumble at you to save face."

Glad it all got approved, and you won't need to face that again!

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Eagh. Scary, yes

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

Yikes, that's pretty terrifying! Sounds like you're good to go now, though, since your permanent residency applications should take less than 2 years. I would also expect that process to be less stressful. The criteria are more straightforward at that stage (I'm sure you meet them if you were able to apply at all) and when your application goes through, you will send them your passports (always scary, but inevitable once in a while) and they will send them back with visas for permanent residency in them. Then you still have to do the leaving-and-returning thing, but the paperwork at that point is pretty simple. They'll tell you what you need to bring (proof of having a certain amount of money in the bank is the only one i can remember) but you'll already have that visa, so you are basically approved already and formalizing it, not applying at the border. We walked across the bridge at Niagara Falls, walked around the park on the US side a bit (it was a beautiful day) and walked back in.

[jazzfish]

No kidding. I was prepared for "it's kinda late" grumbling, but not really for "... and we shouldn't have let you in to start with, why should we let you in again." Eep.

[jazzfish]

Thanks! It was kinda nightmarish, but at least it's over now.

[jazzfish]

Thanks, and me too!

[jazzfish]

Thanks! I expect the answer is 'the satisfaction of making their job easier.'

And that seems like a logical reading of the end of it. That or "the higher-up told me if I do anything to derail your permanent residency application I'll never hear the end of it."

[jazzfish]

Rather. But over, at least.

[jazzfish]

Thanks! Yeah, at this point as near as I can tell they've basically decided we're in as long as we weren't lying on our application. Which is kind of a relief.

I am tempted to do the leave-and-come-back thing for permanent residency at the train station, partly because train trips are awesome and partly to give them something interesting to do for once. :)