It’s been a longer than we expected wait for any response regarding our paperwork for Landed Immigrant status. This week, I decided to call the lawyer we’ve dealt with during the whole process to find out if he knew anything more than we did (or perhaps he could find a way to expedite matters). After a little phone tag, I found out yesterday that the hold-up has been Pam’s fingerprints. It’s not that she’s on any watch-list, but that the prints just don’t come out well enough. Apparently years of washing dishes, dry hands, and other wear and tear have left her with fingers that just don’t offer much in the way of a well-defined print. She’s had them done twice, and the second time, the fellow doing the prints looked at the first set (which had come back with the ‘Rejected’ stamp on them) and declared “I could read these!”. He explained that the FBI requires prints that are readable by a machine rather than a human. So, we find ourselves in limbo, ironically because the FBI won’t clear Pam’s fingerprints. This is particularly irksome, as so much of our future decisions are on hold because of this (and even the ability for us to stay here). Our lawyer said that there’s really nothing we can do, and that we’ll just have to wait while the prints and Pam’s records make their way through the FBI’s labyrinthine bureaucracy. I’m hoping that the wait won’t be much longer, but there’s no telling how much longer this will take. It’s a good thing that my work permit didn’t depend on this!
If it’s Saturday, Then This Must be China
Last year we very much enjoyed watching not one night of fireworks, but 3 of them. Each year, Vancouver hosts a Fireworks competition in late July to early August. Last year, 3 countries, including Canada, China and Sweden were the participating countries (Sweden won). This year, it’s 4 : Italy, China, the Czech Republic, and Mexico. We saw Italy’s performance last Wednesday from Vanier Park. Tonight it will be China, who will open their display with the music of ‘The Yellow River Concerto’, a piece that has the dubious distinction of being the only fairly well known piece of concert music that was written by a committee, (the Yellow River Composers’ Committee, of course), although there is an article in Wikipedia that attributes it as an arrangement of music from The Yellow River Cantata by Yin Chengzong. The Yellow River Cantata is attributed to Xian Xinghai (1905?1945), so I’m not sure where the Committee attribution on so many recordings (including the one I heard a few times when I was a kid) came from. Next Wednesday it will be the Czech Republic, and the following Saturday, Mexico followed by the ‘Grand Finale’. I remember how I was sad that we’d leave the Fourth of July Fireworks behind, but they seem to be replaced nicely with more than enough pyrotechnics, although without all of the kitschy Americana we indulged in on the Banks of the Charles.
How come you need to deal with the FBI, if you’re trying to get into Canada? Or are you referring to a Canadian agency that happens to have the same acronym as the USA’s Federal Bureau of Investigation?
Frank -
As odd as it sounds, we have to pass a security check of our fingerprints by both the RCMP (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police — yes, the Mounties) as well as the US’s FBI (the Feds). The US FBI is supposed to report to the Canadian government if we are on any of their lists (most wanted, partially wanted, unwanted, unwashed, who knows?). I also had to have the Cambridge England police station send an affidavit of sorts that I wasn’t on their records as a miscreant during the time I was a student back in 1983. One of the least surprising things about the immigration process has been the paperwork. As in lots of it. For us it’s not huge deal, but for people arriving who’s English is not so good, it’s a significant hurdle.