Sorry to hear of your troubles, but not entirely surprised. I lived in Ontario (an hour east of Toronto) for almost five years. I did eventually become a landed imigrant, but it took heroic amounts of time, patience and no small quantity of money. The ironic part is that even the immigration officials admitted that this was a slam dunk example (no criminal history, Canadian wife, US husband, everything in order, etc, etc, etc), but was still tedious beyond description. And that was pre-911...
So now we're back in the US and much happier for it. I wish you the best, but think you could get a terrific education for your son on U.S. soil.
But every situation has its own complexities, and you're a pretty sophisticated decision maker so I leave it for you to do what is best in your family's interest.
Finest regards,
troy
The interesting bit is that 'true' Canadians are of the opinion that their country is very easy to get in to. I wonder where they get that impression because it simply is not true.
www.greenbits.com[ Parent ]
I recall when Canada's new Immigration policy came into effect a while back, an NGO decided to take the list of Nobel prize winners and see if they would qualify. Appearently the results were along the lines of 10 - 15% would qualify under todays rules.
Frankly I think this country has rode it's reputation into the dirt along time ago and those in control just can't see it. We have expected that our successes during the 40's to late 60's should carry us forever.
Mike Edmonton Alberta Canada[ Parent ]
That's interesting stuff about Nobel prize winners, but I wouldn't even begin to class myself in that league, I'm just a handyman, not much more than that.
The decision is not even made in Canada !! Canada has several immigration centers, in Buffalo, Berlin and a bunch of other places abroad. There simply is no procedure whereby you can start working here under a work permit and then transfer that into a residence, the only thing you can do is pretend you never were in Canada and act as if you are immigrating from abroad. It's the most backward system I have ever seen.
Ostensibly this is to avoid people using the work permit as a way to immigrate, but what better way to asses who does or does not qualify for citizenship or landed immigrant status. My tax bill - which is quite hefty - tells them all they need to know as far as I'm concerned.
When I started working here we never even thought of immigration, but after a few months of contstant air travel it was pretty clear that something had to be done about it sooner or later.
And in theory Canada is very cooperative in this, it's just that in practice they are not. www.greenbits.com[ Parent ]
