1 Year Anniversary (Feb 2007)

My 1 year anniversary of my arrival in Canada came and went without fanfare. My one year anniversary of being 'in process' for Canadian permanent residence followed suit. How appropriate that the traditional 1 year anniversary gift is paper.

I have no paper left to send to the paper worshiping Canadian government employee to mark the event. So, around February 2007, I devise a new game plan and determine that my only course of action is to call the Call Center continuously and check my ECAS daily. Perhaps, with just enough annoyance, I can persuade the paper worshiper to at least blow the dust off my file.

By now, I have gone from hopeful that this process will complete sometime during my life expectancy to believing that my current state of nonexistence will continue for an eternity. It has become my own little hell, not unlike Dante's. I check ECAS daily, and every day, the same words stare blankly, unforgivingly, back at me from my computer screen:

We received your application for permanent residence on February 15, 2006.

We started processing your application on June 16, 2006 .

We transferred your application to the local CIC office on November 7, 2006. The local CIC office may contact you. .

I contact the Call Center at least twice a week. I ask the same questions. I get the same answers. Some of the Call Center agents are pleasant and others are just rude. I assume that they log the calls into their system and I imagine the Call Center agent looking through this long list of my calls and thinking I must be insane. I don't care at this point. I just want the comfort to know that someone, somewhere, is reviewing my file and my state of marginal existence will end someday soon. The responses from the CIC agents at the Call Center are prerecorded as every agent says it exactly the same: "Your file was transferred on November 7, 2006. Your file is still in process."

I try different approaches, ask why the file was transferred? Is there something else I need to document or send in? Who can I talk to at the local office regarding my file? I learn that local offices don't take phone calls. I learn CIC has not requested additional information from me.

My husband is equally annoyed, but he still has faith in the Canadian government. He tells me to just be patient, they can't sit on the file forever. He hates seeing me upset. He says that he thinks we will be called in for a personal interview soon and then things will get moving. He says everything will be fine, don't worry. I analyze my latest actions and come to the conclusion that I am only upsetting myself. Even an act of God couldn't move my file any closer to the top of the pile. I stop hounding the paper worshipers for awhile, but I continue to check ECAS daily.